The Bells
by meandering-bluebottle
Summary: Sirius and Ella don't think anything of each other, neither good nor bad. It will take a detention, a mysterious urn and some strange dust for them to get to know one another, and even then secrets prevail!
1. Urning a detention

Disclaimer: Harry Potter and its characters belong to J.K Rowling. I am simply inspired by her world.

**A/N **So, this is my first (and possibly last) fanfiction piece. For me, fanfiction is one of those 'long time listener, first time caller' type things although im not on the phone... It would be great if you could review, i have the story planned and a good half written so i just need encouragement to fill in the gaps for your enjoyment!!! Not all chapters will be this long, i just needed to get this done to get on with the plot so bear with me!

Ella sat in her usual seat at the Gryffindor table, delighting in the various foods the house elves had prepared for the night's meal. First term was nearing an end into Ella's seventh year at Hogwarts school of Witchcraft and Wizardry, the final and most important year of a magical person's life. Surprisingly, the most pressing thing on Ella's mind was not NEWT's, but making sure she got a fair serving of her favourite dessert; trifle. As she piled her plate high, she looked along the length of the Gryffindor table. Surrounding her were her friends, all in deep conversation about something Ella had ceased to pay attention to once dessert had appeared. On one side of her sat some first years who had attempted to try out the levitating charm with some interesting results; namely a goblet of water bursting into flames and singeing three people's eyebrows while catching someone's sleeve alight. On her other side sat the rest of the Gryffindors in her year who were piling their plates high with dessert, quite like Ella had moments before, and talking animatedly through mouthfuls of food. Taking a look around the great hall, Ella saw the other house tables filled with people having dinner conversations, all creating the familiar hum which she associated with meal times. It was a great feeling to be part of something as amazing as Hogwarts.

It was a Thursday evening. One more day until the weekend which meant there was only one more week until the Christmas Holidays. Remaining true to Hogwarts tradition, 12 gigantic fur trees lined the walls of the Great Hall, all decked in elaborate silver baubles and ornaments. Despite seeing the Christmas display each year, the site never ceased to amaze. Dinner was finishing up and files of people were leaving the great hall to return to their dormitories. Ella was savouring her last helping of trifle when her friends called out to her.

"Earth to Ella!" Ebony said. Ella looked up with her fork still in her mouth. Margot chose this moment to stop waving her hand in front of Ella's face.

"Hmm?"

"Honestly El, there's just no dealing with you when it's trifle night."

"Well you're no different when you go off on one of your 'Jeremy' fantasies." Ella retorted. Ebony looked toward Margot for support. Unlucky for her, Margot took Ella's side.

"It's true." She said. Ebony gave her a hard stare. "Well really, you two are as bad as each other." Ebony decided to defend herself.

"First of all, Jeremy is my boyfriend, I don't need to fantasise. And secondly…actually there is no secondly. That's it."

"See, you just have to say his name, then you go off all halved cocked and can't remember what you were going to say. Typical obsessive behaviour I would say."

"Well at least I don't have an orgasm every time someone mentions trifle." Ebony said defensively but a smile plastered her face. This banter was usual between the girls. Unfortunately, a boy in their year level chose this moment to eavesdrop on the conversation while he was getting up from the table.

"Who's having an orgasm?" He asked. He almost seemed serious if not for the twinkle in his eye. Ella took the liberty to answer.

"Oh just Eb here, she was telling us about her night with J-" Ella was cut off by Ebony's hand being clapped to her mouth, accompanied by an evil stare. The boy stood there with his eyebrows raised, waiting for an explanation.

"She's joking Sirius, no one was talking about orgasms." At this point, another boy from their year joined the conversation.

"Who's having an orgasm?" He asked. Ella attempted to pull Ebony's hand away from her face but it had tightened considerably. She was sure she would be left with an imprint of Ebony's hand.

"No one!" Ebony defended.

"You know James, I swear I heard the word orgasm in their conversation, didn't you?" Sirius asked the other boy.

"Positive. I do have good hearing you know, and I swear I heard the word orgasm too." Before the girls or Sirius could answer, a red headed girl joined the group.

"Typical of you Potter, hearing those kinds of words. Thought you could listen in and get a few pointers perhaps?" James, the 'Potter' in question, smiled and turned to the girl.

"Don't act like you're not intrigued Lily. " Lily scoffed.

"I've been meaning to ask you, since when am I Lily? What happened to 'Evans'?" There was a split second before James responded.

"Just getting into the festive spirit. No seriously, it's a new year, and our last year, so I thought we could be civilised and drop the whole 'Potter'- 'Evans' thing." Lily looked at him a moment. James was bracing himself for a verbal attack.

"Hm." Lily began to walk away, but turned around and continued. "That's a shame. I quite liked that we never acknowledged the formalities of civilised conversation. You could say I found it…intriguing." James simply stood there while Lily made her way out of the Great Hall. It was common knowledge that throughout every year at Hogwarts, James Potter tried to snag Lily Evans. He was clearly unsuccessful. His attempts at courting were shunned and often ended in violent screaming matches. It was for these reasons that Ella, along with her friends and the two boys, stood in stunned silence for a good minute. Sirius decided to break the strange moment.

"That was… I don't know what that was. What was that?" Margot, ever the voice of reason, decided to answer.

"I think Lily has finally decided to accept that she's been in denial for six years." This seemed to pull James out of his reverie.

"What, she's always liked me?" The look on his face was of complete desperation. Sirius had to laugh at him.

"I think it was obvious to anyone who has eyes and ears that there's always been something there." Ella offered. James looked as though he was going to ask something, but Ella cut him off.

"BUT because you can be an utter arse at times, she didn't want to give you a chance."

"Hey!" James retaliated. He looked to Sirius for back up.

"Sorry mate, she's got a point." He stated unhelpfully. There was another awkward silence. Ebony looked around the group of people.

"Okay, so we're going back to the common room. Big day tomorrow you know."

"Big day? Are you serious? It's nearly holidays and we have mostly free periods tomorrow." Sirius replied, looking at Ebony with an eyebrow raised. She looked straight back at him, unfazed.

"I know that. I just wanted to break the silence seeing as no one else was making an effort." She stated bluntly. Another silence followed.

"Okay, bye." Ebony finally started walking away, Margot and Ella in tow. After they had gone only a few metres, Ella heard Sirius's disappointed remark to James.

"We never did found out who was talking about orgasms." Ebony paused and turned back to the two boys. She patted Sirius lightly on the back.

"Let it go Sirius, just let it go."

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The girls sat in the Gryffindor common room on Friday night, gossiping and deciding what to do for the weekend. Margot insisted they get a start on their assignments which had been issued that day. The other girls decided to ignore her suggestion. There was a commotion in the corner as the same group of first years from the previous night attempted the levitating charm again. This time someone's nose had swelled to an abnormally large size. The girls looked on as the first year's nose was fixed by Sirius who then proceeded to give them all a lesson on how to do the charm properly. Margot furrowed her brow.

"I don't understand that boy." She said shaking her head.

"What do you mean?" Ella asked.

"Well, apparently his whole family has been in Slytherin but he was sorted into Gryffindor which made his family denounce him or something." Margot didn't attempt to elaborate, leaving Ella and Ebony to stare at her. By this stage, Margot shifted her gaze back to where Sirius and the first years were practicing the spell. Margot often said things as though they were self explanatory, which still irked the other girls.

"Yeah, Margy we've talked about this. You really need to finish your sentences. El here may have a freakish insight into things but this is not one of them." Ebony said. Margot looked back at them.

"Oh, sorry. It's just that he comes from a family of Slytherins who are mean and possibly evil, while he hated that and became a Gryffindor, and yet he still treats other people badly, even though that's what he hated about his family. Then you turn around and he's doing something like this, helping out first years with their homework. I just don't get him."

"Well if you think about this logically, a lot of who we are is because of our environment, so the way we were brought up. If he grew up with people who treated other people badly, it's no surprise that he has developed some form of the trait. Either because he's trying to compensate for how he was treated or simply because it was a learnt thing. As for him helping out those first years, I'm sure it was because they've caused so much damage already, it was probably just a precaution to make sure their next try didn't backfire and ruin his hair or something." Ella said with a chuckle.

"I really don't see what you have against those boys El. They're really not that bad, I mean they're not perfect or anything but we've all worked with them at some stage and talk to them. It's not like they've ever done anything horrible to us." Ebony stated. Ella decided to defend herself.

"Oh I know. I've got nothing against them." Ebony gave Ella a disbelieving look.

"No seriously, I don't. I was just trying to reason Margot's bafflement of Sirius. And come on, there's no denying that he's treated people badly in the past and as for the attack on his hair, well anyone can see that he's just really vain. Sit him in front of a mirror and he'll be amused for hours."

"Okay, point well made." Ebony replied. "You know, he may be vain but it really pays off doesn't it?" She added. Margot and Ella looked back over to Sirius and eyed him up.

"Yeah, I'd have to say it does." Margot agreed.

"Oh of course you would agree, you've had this little girly crush on him for ages now." Ella offered. Margot's face had the slightest tinge of pink to it when she answered.

"Oh don't be so silly El, that was ages ago and it was hardly a full crush."

"No, that's why you know all that stuff about his family and take note of his every move and hate Miranda." Ella answered. Margot looked like she was trying to do some quick thinking.

"I do not take note of his every move! And the stuff about his family is just common knowledge and I don't hate Miranda, I just dislike her and not because she's going out with Sirius."

"What happened to giving people a change Margy? You're so willing to accept the good in Sirius so why not Miranda? Even after she went all schitzo on me I still talk to her and get along with her so I don't see what you can have against her other than that she constantly displays her affection for Sirius. In public. Where you can see. And wish it were you." Ella knew she was right as Margot had gone a darker shade of pink now and appeared to admit defeat.

"Who hasn't wished it were them?" Ebony offered. Ella rolled her eyes and pushed Ebony off the sofa. She never bothered to answer Ebony's question or statement rather. Indeed she had thought about it on a couple of occasions, but as Ebony stated, who hadn't? Sirius was a good looking guy and although he had a slightly bizarre dress sense, it really worked for him. Although he had a reputation for being extremely flirtatious, he had only ever had two girlfriends and, despite the rumours, Sirius stayed completely faithful to them. However, when he was unattached, nothing stopped Sirius from having a bit of fun with the ladies. Ella was sure that Margot wished she could be one of the lucky ones to whom Sirius became completely enamoured with as this meant the public displays of affection, the envy of many girls in the school and having someone so devoted that he practically becomes your personal slave. There really was only one Sirius Black.

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"Detention, Monday night Miss Powell!" Professor McGonagall shouted. Ella lay sprawled on the floor in the entrance hall of the castle, just having fallen down half a flight of stairs. Her clothes were soaked through and she was shivering uncontrollably. And now she was sure to have broken a few bones or at the very least have bruises aplenty by tomorrow morning. While professor McGonagall had picked herself up off the floor after being knocked over by the human bowling ball known as Ella, other students were still trying to right themselves after the catastrophe. Laying in a daze on the floor, Ella was still trying to piece together what had happened.

She remembered talking with her friends by the lake. She remembered looking up at the clouds and stating that it looked like it was going to rain. She remembered arguing with the girls that water was always warmer when you swam in the rain. She wished she didn't remember that she ended up in the lake to prove her point. She wished the lake wasn't so cold. She wished she hadn't forgotten that she could have done a warming charm before jumping in. She wished that she hadn't attempted the drying charm while running up the stairs in her haste to get to the Gryffindor common room. She wished that water wasn't slippery, or that staircases in the castle weren't so big and full of people, particularly irate Transfiguration professors. As professor McGonagall helped the other students up off the floor, she shot Ella a glare. It was lucky for her that the professor didn't know why she was so wet, as it was raining so heavily outside that everyone returning indoors looked in the same state. Ella was sure she would have been reprimanded more had the professor known she had jumped in the freezing lake to prove that the water was warmer when it rained. She didn't need a teacher to tell her it was a stupid idea; she certainly knew it was now. Finally, Ella was taken to the hospital wing by Ebony and Margot who had difficulty controlling their laughter, while they decided not to perform a drying charm on her as they didn't want a repeat of the 'incident' so to speak. Once in the hospital wing, Ella was informed she would be staying overnight to let her broken arm heal properly while she was finally dried off and given numerous potions which warmed her from the inside out.

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Monday night arrived which meant Ella was to serve her detention. She knew she would be accompanied by Sirius Black due to an extremely eventful, if not amusing, potions lesson that day. Ella and Sirius waited in professor McGonagall's office at seven thirty that night, awaiting their doom.

"Now I assume you both know why you are here?" The professor asked unnecessarily.

"Yes professor." The two answered mechanically.

"Mr. Black, I have been informed by professor Slughorn that it is not necessary for you to have a weeks worth of detention, therefore you are only required for one night. After tonight, you are free to use your week as you wish." Professor McGonagall made a face which looked as though saying those very words left a foul taste in her mouth. Her opinion was that ill behaved students should be punished accordingly. The potions master had quite a soft spot for Sirius which was possibly the only reason for reducing his detention. Sirius gave a nod while trying to hold back a smirk.

"Yes professor."

"Now, Miss Powell. You on the other hand will continue with three nights of detention. I am aware that it was an accident, however I believe for the amount of chaos you caused, it is only befitting that you lose three nights of your time."

"Yes professor." Ella replied stiffly. It didn't seem fair that Sirius got out of detention while she had to do the full sentence. Professor McGonagall motioned for the two students to follow her. As they tagged along behind their Head of House, Sirius looked over to Ella and asked under his breath.

"Three night's worth of detention for something accidental? What exactly did you do?"

"I fell down a flight of stairs." She replied shortly.

"Oh come on, no one gets detention for falling down stairs."

"I may have knocked over the professor in the process." Sirius knew there was more to the story.

"Aaand…" he circled his hand in mid air, gesturing her to continue.

"And I may have also knocked down about ten other students. I think half of them landed in the hospital wing." Sirius laughed out loud which earned him a glare from professor McGonagall. They continued in silence.

Finally they stopped outside what looked like a storage room which was a part of the trophy room. Professor McGonagall turned around to address them.

"This storage room has not been cleared out for over ten years. I want it cleared out and everything cleaned and reorganised to get rid of the clutter. I want this done manually please, no wands. If you use them, I shall know. Now, I will be back in four hours." The professor waved her wand at the room, then gave the two a curt nod and left them to begin their detention. Ella looked down at her wand in her hand. She had been about to hand it over.

"Why didn't she take our wands?" she asked.

"That wand waving thing she did just now was a detection spell. We use our wands, believe me, she'll know."

"Why, what will happen?"

"Let's just say, if you value your hearing, or your looks or your ability to move, then I wouldn't try to use your wand." Sirius said this as though no more questions should be asked. Ella simply nodded and put her wand away. They stood there looking at the door. On the plus side, the door looked rather small which meant the storage room couldn't be that big. Sirius shrugged and opened the door. They turned on the light and realised that what the professor called a 'store room' was more like a cavernous space cluttered with books, strange looking ornaments, old trophies and school supplies. Sirius turned to Ella who stood there with her mouth open.

"Don't worry. After all you've got three days to finish it."

"Thanks." She smirked and rolled up the sleeves of her jumper, ready to put her cleaning skills to the test. Sirius followed suit.

While Ella and Sirius were in the same house and year at Hogwarts, they had never really gotten to know one another. They had random talks here and there but nothing to indicate they were any more than acquaintances. Sure Ella knew a little bit about him from her own observations and information from Margot or Miranda, but her conversations with Sirius had only ever been polite and superficial. To Ella, Sirius appeared to be carefree, confident and have a passion for causing mischief with his friends. He really did come across as unflappable. Sirius knew nothing of Ella except that she was reasonably smart given her performance in class, that she was good friends with his girlfriend in the first few years of school and that, given her accent, she must be Welsh. From his conversations with her, he had come to the conclusion that Ella was neither quiet and shy nor loud and overbearing. He wasn't sure if she had a good sense of humour or what type of music she liked or whether she was in to Quidditch. They had been in the room for over half an hour now and they had hardly said a word. Sirius decided it might be nice to have some form of conversation.

"So, is this your first detention?" He asked. Hardly a quality conversation topic but it seemed relevant. Ella looked up from the pile of parchments she was sorting.

"No actually. I tend to have a habit of being clumsy at inappropriate times." After saying this she wasn't really sure how to continue. She could ask the same question to him but that would just be stupid as clearly he had been in detention more times than he could count. There was a pause and then both of them went back to their work. Ella almost wished he hadn't said anything. There was silence beforehand but now it was an awkward silence. She never used to care so much about awkward moments but after years of being Ebony's friend, she had picked up her dislike for them. She spent the next ten minutes thinking of something, anything, to talk to Sirius about. She suddenly heard a humming noise coming from where he was clearing a shelf of bric-a-brac. Humming was a sign of utter boredom, and Ella did not want to be the one causing boredom if she could help it. She said the first thing she could think of.

"James and Lily." She said. Very smooth. Sirius looked up from what he was doing.

"Hm?"

"Um, James and Lily. You reckon they'll get together this year?" Ella was getting ready to handle another silence but Sirius grinned and answered her.

"I think so. It seems like Lily has finally taken that pole out of her arse, and James has quit acting like a complete wanker." Sirius did an impression of James ruffling his hair. "Heeey Evans, go out with me, you know you want to." In a mixture of relief that he replied and how accurate Sirius' impression of James was, Ella laughed out loud. Sirius made a mental note that Ella at least had a bit of a sense of humour.

"You know he talks about her in his sleep?" He continued. Ella laughed again.

"That's sweet…I think. I would give you some dirt on Lily but she doesn't really make a habit of talking in her sleep."

"That's surprising, she talks so much when she's awake, I just thought it would be natural for her to keep talking when she's asleep." Ella made a shocked face.

"Don't you like Lily?"

"Oh no, don't get me wrong, I can see why James worships the girl but if you had to hear as much about her as I have, you'd hold a grudge too."

"It's hardly her fault though."

"Which is exactly why I have impressions for both of them."

"Fair enough." Ella nodded. "So you have impressions of everyone then?"

"For my friends at least, yeah." He turned back to the shelf he was clearing. "I have to put up with them enough so what good is it if I can't take the piss?" He reached up for an urn which was the last item left on the shelf.

"So what would their impression be of you?" Ella asked but didn't get an answer. Sirius was standing there, holding the urn with both hands. He had a curious look on his face.

"Hey Ella, come look at this." Ella made her way over to where Sirius was standing. She looked at him expectantly.

"There's something, weird, about this urn." He had a sudden thought. "You don't think it has someone's ashes in it do you?" He asked, sounding a little disgusted and holding the urn further from him. Ella looked at it. It was a white ceramic urn with an intricate blue design. Every now and then the pattern seemed to change slightly. She looked closer at the changing blue pattern.

"How good are you at runes?" She asked.

"Yeah not too bad, not the best either. Why?"

"I think these are runes. Look, they change every few seconds so it looks like its sparkling." Sirius took a closer look. The runes suddenly turned yellow and then gradually darkened to an orange.

"Ah, even if we were good at runes, they're way too small to be able to read properly anyway. Wonder what's with the colour change." He asked rhetorically. Ella shrugged. She couldn't shake the feeling that there was something sinister about this urn.

"Sirius, maybe we should just put it back on the shelf. I don't trust it."

"Oh come on Ella, this is Hogwarts, I'm sure it can't be that evil" He made a quizzical face. "But there is something about it. It makes me feel warm." Sirius could feel a warm heat making its way from his hands which spread through his body. At that moment Ella looked back to the runes which were moving faster and turning a darker shade of orange.

"Sirius, I think the heat is from the runes. Look, they're getting darker." She sounded a little panicky. Not a lot, but there was an urgency to her voice. No sooner than she said this, the runes turned a flaming red. Sirius gasped in pain from the sudden burst of heat. The shock of the heat caused him to drop the urn and it began to fall as if in slow motion.

"Fuck! You evil bitch!"

"Hey! I didn't do anything to it!" Ella replied, feeling rather scandalised. Sirius was shaking his hands rapidly to cool them off.

"I didn't mean you I meant-"

He was cut off by a loud crack as the urn hit the concrete floor. Large chunks of ceramic slid across the room. The runes immediately turned black and ceased moving. The contents spilled out over the floor and what appeared to be fine, glittery dust particles formed a cloud around Sirius and Ella. Unable to escape it, they breathed it in, choking and coughing as the fine dust got into their lungs. Unable to find clean air, they became weak and fell to the floor. Still coughing weakly, they began to black out. Lying on the floor, it felt as though the world was spinning around them. They shared the one thought; is this death? The floor felt as though it had dropped away. Colours flew past at extraordinary speeds. As suddenly as the spinning sensation began, it stopped. The lights had gone out in the store room and the concrete floor lay cold and solid beneath their bodies. Every inch of them seemed to ache as they used this moment to finally draw clean air, the sensation rushing to their heads. Not caring what professor McGonagall's detection spell would do to them, Sirius reached in to his pocket and drew his wand. It was pitch black. He heard a yelp.

"Ouch! You nearly poked my eye out!" The voice was lower and more hoarse than usual, though it unmistakably came from Ella.

"Sorry." Sirius said.

"No it's okay. I'll be alright. Can you light your wand though, it's a bit weird being in the dark." Ella heard Sirius' now husky voice say '_lumos'. _Wand light filled the room and Sirius saw Ella rubbing her, now extremely red, eye.

"Sorry bout that." He said. Her eye looked really sore.

'Like I said, don't worry about it."

"No but it looks really red and awful." Ella tried to shoot a glare his way but with her newly injured eye the effect wasn't as she desired. Sirius quirked an eyebrow as he was not really sure what look she was trying to go for.

"I thought you of all people would know never to tell a girl she looks like crap." She said defensively. Sirius made a sympathetic face.

"I really am sorry, I can try make it better." He motioned towards her but she put her hand out.

'No really, I'm fine. I think it might be good if we got out of this room though." Sirius nodded. It was rather difficult for them to stand as they were still so achy. Ella covered her mouth as she let out a raspy cough. She pulled her hand away and could see some of the fine silvery dust laying there. Ignoring this, Ella managed to pull herself up and stood by the door where Sirius was waiting. If she was worried, she certainly didn't show it. There seemed to be an unspoken agreement that they didn't talk about the urn or the fine dust. Sirius couldn't bear the thought that they may have inhaled and choked on the remnants of some old dead magical guy. Ella refused to acknowledge that the event ever took place. If she ignored the memory, it was as if it never happened. They were okay now and that was the main thing.

In their haste to ignore the recent events, neither noticed that the store room had changed. The clutter was gone. The door was no longer white, but made out of heavy cedar. Sirius opened the door with a niggling feeling of déjà vu. Behind the door was a small flight of stairs and a corridor dimly lit with lanterns. Sirius felt himself pale. Not noticing his reaction, Ella said bluntly.

"This isn't the trophy room." She looked to the grey brick walls. "Do you think we're somewhere else in the castle? Maybe it was some sort of magic transport dust." Sirius didn't answer.

"Sirius?" She turned around to find him. He was leaning against the wall, wand hand slightly shaking. He shook his head in a manner that appeared he didn't want to speak for fear of being sick.

"Sirius, what's wrong? Was it the dust? Are you okay?" Ella rushed up to him and felt his forehead. He was cold and clammy. Sirius finally came around and brought Ella's hand down from his face. He composed himself and as he spoke, a slight bit of colour returned to his cheeks.

"I know where we are." He said slowly. Ella nodded for him to continue. Instead of answering, he lead her up the corridor, bracing himself for what would be awaiting him up the short flight of steps. As they got closer, they could hear the low hum of conversation. Sirius reached the top step, Ella a short distance behind him.

"You wait here." He said, eyes fixed on the doorway.

"What? No, I'm going with you." Ella walked up two more steps but Sirius prevented her coming further by holding her shoulders.

"Just trust me okay? Don't come out until I come get you." Ella couldn't work out the strange look in Sirius' eyes. It could have been fear. She nodded, not wanting to question his judgement even though she was bursting to know what had happened. Sirius turned and entered what he knew was a small kitchen. Ella went to the top step to make sure she could listen in. She heard Sirius' voice loud and confident.

"Hello mother. Did you miss me?" Ella gasped. They were at Sirius' house? Ella decided not to wait for Sirius to come get her and entered the kitchen herself. What she saw was not Sirius' evil mother but a sandy haired wizard with his wand pointed directly at Sirius and herself. The wizard's eyes were round in shock. He slowly lowered his wand. Sirius looked at the older wizard with equal shock.

"Moony?" He asked, somewhat bewildered. _Moony? _Ella thought. Why had she heard that name before? Ella took a closer look at the wizard. She gasped.

"Remus?" She said, not as a question but as a shocked statement. This was not the same Remus Lupin that was in her year at Hogwarts. He was much shabbier and much older than she remembered him.

"What happened to you Moony?" Sirius asked. He couldn't help but think he had to get to a mirror quick smart to make sure he didn't look as downtrodden as his friend Remus. Then he had another thought. He was at his parent's house. It was probably a trick. As quickly as he could, he pointed his wand fiercely in Remus' direction.

"Who are you?" Remus replied quickly.

"Sirius it's me. You're parents aren't here. I promise you it's me." Sirius wasn't fooled.

"PROVE IT!" Sirius saw Remus' eyes dart to Ella. He hadn't even noticed she had entered the room. He made a note to yell at her later. What was she thinking, disobeying him?

"We went to school together, you, me, James. " He paused. "And Peter."

"Big deal, anyone would know that!"

"We were the marauders, we made a map of Hogwarts." Remus glanced at Ella. "We all went to the shrieking shack once a month." Sirius still wanted more.

"Tell me why." He demanded. Remus muttered a quick incantation while waving his wand. Ella saw their mouths move but didn't hear a word they were saying.

"I'm a werewolf, you all became unregistered animagi in our fifth year. You are a dog, James is a stag and Peter is a rat." Sirius finally looked satisfied and lowered his wand.

"What the fuck is going on Remus?" He asked.

"I don't know. You two should sit down though." Remus replied.

"WHAT?" Ella shouted. She still couldn't hear a thing. "CAN SOMEONE PLEASE TELL ME WHAT'S GOING ON?" Remus waved his wand and did the counter spell.

"Take a seat Ella."


	2. Time makes fools of us all

**Disclaimer: **Harry Potter belongs to J.K Rowling. How nice of her to share her world with all of us!!!!

**A/N: **Thank you SO much for your reviews, I honestly didn't think I would get any!! I was so motivated that I went away after I got the first review and typed up this chapter. I hope it answers some questions…and even creates some new ones!!!

**Chapter Two: Time makes fools of us all**

The sudden sensation of being able to hear again warranted Ella a finger wriggle in the ear. She pulled out the chair next to Sirius. Remus sat opposite them on the long polished table, his fingers massaging his temples as if trying to find a reasonable explanation for his 17 year old friend being in front of him. Sirius was looking around the kitchen, giving the stove and sink evil glares. Ella was sure it was because of the house's symbolism and not because he had a thing against inanimate objects. Tension was ripe in the air. Ella fidgeted, praying that one of the other two would break the deadly silence and explain what was happening. She looked expectantly at them but neither made eye contact with her. Terrified inside, Ella didn't let the emotion show in her voice when she finally spoke up.

"Let me get this straight." She said. The others looked at her somewhat surprised. She continued. "We are in Sirius' house?" Giving the kitchen a glare again, Sirius replied.

"If by that you mean is this my parent's house then yes. I don't live here any more." He said the last sentence with as much emphasis as possible.

"I'm sorry for being blunt but don't your parents-" she paused, trying to think of the right word "-dislike you? So why would they want you to come here?"

"What makes you think my parents sent me here?"

"Sent _us _here. And if they didn't, who else would have?"

"If they sent anyone I'm pretty sure they didn't mean to send _you. _They have it in for me, I'm sure it's some dramatic plot for me to be beaten into submission and take on their evil views."

"I'm sure that's not what they wanted to do. You're their son." Ella reassured, it was a natural thing for her to want to make people feel better about things. Unfortunately for her, it was the wrong thing to say. Sirius turned in his seat to face Ella head on. The intensity in his eyes was unnerving.

"Their son? If by son you mean the child that they disowned, the child that they locked away for talking to muggles and standing up for what I believe in, then yeah I'm their son. But believe me; if I could change that fact, I would, and when I left this place I vowed never to come back." He nodded his head as if something suddenly occurred to him. "I bet that's what it is, it's their sick plot to make me miserable, drag me back here and lock me in a room with no toilet access or mirrors or change of clothes-" Sirius continued to mumble, which finally gave Remus the opportunity to cut in the conversation.

"I don't think it was your parents who sent you here Sirius. Like I said, they're not here."

Sirius finally stopped his rant, not bothering to ask why his parents weren't there. The important thing was that they weren't anywhere near him. Ella was having trouble understanding what was going on. She had a horrible thought that Remus must have killed Sirius' parents, which was why he had taken residence in their house. She quickly dismissed this as it was an absurd thought. However, this didn't stop her from eyeing Remus' wand every now and then, and asking her next question.

"If his parents aren't here, then why are you here and looking so-" Ella cut herself off. She didn't want to offend Remus. Even if she did think he was a murderer for a moment. Apparently Sirius had no qualms about insulting his friend

"Yeah why do you look so old?" Sirius' eyes widened and his hands found his face. He picked up a knife from the table and checked his reflection in it. He slammed it down, not getting the best view and scanned the kitchen desperately for a larger shiny something. Remus sighed but put Sirius at ease.

"Sirius, stop looking for a spatula, you don't look anything like me. The reason I look like this is because I'm in my forties now." There was a high pitched sound that came from Sirius, which resembled a 'What?"

There was a sudden movement near the door of the kitchen and a tall red headed man came in wielding a fire poker rather like a sword.

"REMUS! What's happened? Was it a bird?" The man looked expectantly at the ceiling as if the source of the sound was from a bird in need.

"Arthur, its okay, there are no birds in here. We just have some-" He glanced at Ella and Sirius. "-unexpected visitors."

The man looked toward the two teenagers. Ella waved her hand in a feeble attempt at a greeting, still confused about the situation. Sirius still looked like he wanted to find a mirror to make sure his friend wasn't having him on and they all looked forty. Ella made a mental note about Sirius being much vainer than she thought.

"Oh, splendid! So who do we have here then?" Arthur placed the poker on the table and held his hand out for Ella and Sirius to shake. Ella was the first to rise from her seat and take his hand.

"Ella, sir." Arthur nodded.

"Arthur Weasley, pleasure to meet you Ella. Pardon me for being rude but was it you who made that high pitched sound or should I pick up my poker again?" While Arthur resumed looking toward the ceiling, Remus made a terrible racquet as the legs of his chair were scraped against the tiled floor in his haste to stand upright.

"Arthur, I think I'd better explain." Remus said quickly, circumnavigating the table to reach the other man's side. This did nothing to stop Sirius replying.

"Ah, no sir, that was me." He said sheepishly, or it would have been had it come from somebody else's mouth.

"Well that's a fair scream you've got on you son!" Arthur smiled and shook Sirius' hand. His head tilted to the side for a moment as he surveyed Sirius. His smile faded as he let go of the boy's hand and his eyebrows furrowed.

"I'm sorry, but you look remarkably like a friend of ours. Good man he was." Sirius grinned.

"He looks like me? He's a lucky man then!" Ella couldn't believe that Sirius could crack a joke at a time like this. Especially since Arthur had used past tense in describing his friend. By the look in his eyes she assumed Arthur's friend had departed this world. She thought she should warn Sirius before he went too far and insulted or upset the man.

"Sirius." She warned.

Remus took this moment to cover his face with his hand. He was hoping to get time to explain to Arthur before something unfortunate happened. Arthur's eyes widened as he looked at Sirius. He looked toward Remus, who nodded.

"Merlin's beard! It can't be!" Arthur exclaimed. Sirius furrowed his brow while Remus took Arthur to the corner of the room to explain the situation.

Ella and Sirius looked at one another in confusion but appeared to have a silent agreement to listen in on the conversation. They weren't very subtle about it as they both sat down at the table and deliberately faced away from the older men. Even professor McGonagall would have been proud of their listening skills. Despite their cunning plan, they were only able to hear Arthur's gasps and comments such as 'Well I never!" and 'Sweet Merlin's chamber pot!" Finally, Arthur exited the room as if on a mission while Remus returned to the teenagers. He addressed both of them.

"I've told Arthur who you are and where you came from. He is contacting Dumbledore as we speak. I am hoping he will make more sense of this situation than I can." He returned to the seat opposite Sirius and they sat in silence.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

They didn't have to wait long for the headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry to arrive. Sirius and Ella were not sure how the headmaster could have gotten the message as quick as he did, but clearly the method of communication was effective. Albus Dumbledore waltzed jovially into the kitchen, his elaborate robes flowing with his movement. Despite the man's age and, as Ella noticed, a rather serious injury to one of his hands, the professor looked as happy as ever to be in the rather gloomy kitchen. He held out his hands in a warm gesture.

"Mr. Black, Ms. Powell." He nodded his head.

"Good evening sir." Ella replied. Sirius responded with a less formal nod.

"Please, call me Sirius." He said. It appeared he disliked anything that linked him with his family, including the name.

"I am afraid I would still prefer you call me Professor or Sir, however I shall make an effort to call you Sirius from now on." Dumbledore replied with a smile. He continued. "I had a feeling you would be coming to visit us at some stage. It appears I was right. However, I also had a feeling that you wouldn't visit so really there was no way I was going to be wrong was there?"

It was a strange way to start of a conversation, and it didn't answer any questions. Then again, the headmaster had always been unconventional in every sense of the word.

"I suspect you are wondering why you are here. That, I am afraid I cannot answer but I do believe I know how you came to be here." He paused for effect, then addressed Remus.

"I believe you remember your final year at Hogwarts Remus?" Remus searched his memory and his eyes widened.

"Yes Albus. Rather well." Dumbledore smiled. He knew Remus was piecing the scenario together. The old man turned back to the now even more confused teenagers.

"You are in your seventh year at Hogwarts I presume?"

"Yes sir." They replied. Dumbledore nodded.

"Am I right in remembering that you both had an incident during detention with a rather strange urn?" Sirius and Ella looked at one another.

"Yes sir." The professor nodded again.

"I believe that urn held great power, and was the source of you both being transported here to 1996. As for the dust-"

"I'm sorry sir. But did you just say 1996?" Ella asked. In a strange way, things were starting to make sense. At least the reason why Remus looked so much older was anyway.

"Yes Ms. Powell. I believe you were transported to the present time by that urn."

"So you think that urn was some sort of time turner?" Sirius asked. It was difficult to pinpoint the emotion in his voice. Over the hour they had been at his parent's house, his demeanour was constantly changing.

"I don't believe so Sirius. A time turner would not hold enough power to transport you some 20 years into the future and it also does not explain why your bodies were left back in your time."

"Our bodies sir?" Ella asked. This was getting weird.

"Yes Ms. Powell, your bodies. That is why I am sure a time turner could not bring you here. You see, a time turner transports the whole being. I am sure Remus remembers what your seventh year was like?" Remus nodded and was prompted to explain.

"In our seventh year, just before Christmas, you two had a detention."

"You mean the detention we were just in?" Sirius asked eagerly.

"Yes. Professor McGonagall went back to dismiss you from detention and found you both laying on the ground, completely out of it." Remus rubbed his temples again as he remembered. "You were both in a coma for ages."

"How long?" Sirius asked. His voice was sharp. Remus was about to reply when Dumbledore intervened.

"I believe it would be best if they only know what is necessary from this point onwards." Remus nodded. "I assure you that you will both return to your time, but how I cannot say. I have reason to believe that you are to figure out the way back by yourselves, and though I risk sounding anything but modest, I am rarely wrong on these matters." There was a twinkle in his blue eyes.

"How are we supposed to do that sir?" Ella asked. She had been quiet for a while now.

"All the answers you seek are within these walls. I must urge the importance of you both staying in this house, as if you venture outside, there is no knowing what will happen." Sirius looked ready to explode about being told he had to stay at Grimmauld Place. Before he could protest, Dumbledore continued.

"I realise it is a difficult ask Sirius, but these conditions must be adhered to. Search the house, I would suggest the study. It seems a prudent choice." Sirius and Ella nodded silently.

"Now, I really must be off. Good luck to you both." Dumbledore turned to leave the room with no further explanation. Ella watched his back until her curiosity got the better of her.

"Professor Dumbledore?" The old wizard turned around.

"Yes Ms. Powell?"

"If we still exist back in our time, how can we be here? Is it like some parallel universe or something?" Dumbledore looked sad for the first time since entering the room. However, he did reply.

"I know I seem to only 'believe' many things Ms. Powell, but I know I am right on this one. A time turner allows people to be in two places at once. This urn seems to have changed the rules, and allowed only one of you to exist at a time." He cast his gaze downward.

"But if, whatever the urn was, only allows one of us to exist at any given time then how can we be here?" As soon as Sirius said this, the penny dropped. Ella had the same train of thought. She felt like she was going to be sick.

"You mean-" she swallowed, "-we don't exist anymore?" It was not the wording she was going for but the intention was clear.

"I am afraid you are correct Ms. Powell. You and Sirius are no longer with us in our time."

"How, how do you know? What if we're just lost or-" Sirius was cut off by his friend.

"Padfoot, I'm sorry, but it's true."

"BUT HOW DO YOU KNOW?" Sirius had jumped up sounding desperate. Remus sighed. He suddenly thought of something that would prove Dumbledore's theory.

"When you went to detention that night, tonight, did you have your knife with you?"

"Yeah, but what's that got to do with anything?"

"In this time, your knife no longer exists in its proper form, the blade melted away when it encountered dark magic. Harry…the person you gave the knife to, told me about it."

"I still don't see what you're trying to prove here Moony." They had switched to nicknames without realising.

"Just listen to me Padfoot! You also had the map that night. If Dumbledore is right, in your pocket you will find your knife, but not the map. The knife no longer exists here, so it would have travelled with you. The map is still around in this time, causing mischief. You look in your pocket and you will find your knife, but not the map."

"This is INSANE!" Regardless of how insane it was, he still reached into the pocket of his robes. He grasped the handle of his all purpose knife, but the familiar feel of parchment was no longer there. He withdrew the knife. He panicked.

"No, no, I must have left it in the dorm, or in my other pocket." He quickly rummaged through his other robe pocket. There was nothing there. The map was gone. Despite Sirius' height, Ella had never seen someone droop so low. Sirius slammed the knife into table so the blade was wedged into the wood. The handle wobbled dangerously. Sirius slumped in his seat.

"I am sorry to leave you all in such a state but I must be going." Dumbledore nodded his farewell, which was returned only by Remus. He exited the room and was to be seen no longer. Sirius sat scowling. Ella had paled considerably and still didn't want to risk opening her mouth in case the dinner she ate apparently 20 years ago reappeared.

In the hallway, there was a crash and then a blood curdling scream. Arthur had accidentally knocked over the umbrella stand with the fire poker and there were yells from an unknown source. Well only unknown to Ella. Sirius, Remus and Arthur knew the screaming came from a portrait of Mrs. Black.

"FILTHY BLOOD TRAITERS, LETTING FILTH INTO MY HOUSE! SPAWN OF MOODBLOODS AND THE LIKE!"

Upon hearing the profanities, Sirius made a sudden movement. He un-wedged the knife from the table in pure anger and headed to the hallway. As Ella didn't know the screams came from a portrait, she jumped up too, ready to stop Sirius committing bloody murder.

"SIRIUS NO!!" She ran just behind him into the hallway. She turned and saw Sirius storming up to a portrait of a fierce but handsome woman. Sirius stopped just before it, appearing to do nothing. The portrait kept screaming at him. He made a sudden slashing movement and the magical blade went through the protected canvas with ease. He kept slashing until the painting was only recognisable as a tangled mess of material. He stopped as suddenly as he began, then walked calmly past Ella and back into the kitchen. Ella began to thing that Margot had underestimated just how much Sirius hated his family. At least the screaming had stopped.


	3. I spy

**Disclaimer: **Harry Potter belongs to JK Rowling...and Warner Bros. too i think...so for fear of being sued as i am broke, i say i don't own any of it.

**Chapter Three: I spy**

Five hundred and seventy six. The number of cars which had passed by on the street below Ella's window. One thousand and twenty four. The number of ornate ceiling tiles in the large two-bed room. Seven thousand and two hundred. The number of minutes Ella had locked herself away after finding out she was now in 1996, no longer living in this time and having to find a way back. The last number was a little ambitious she thought, as it didn't subtract the occasional time she had gone down to the kitchen to force herself to eat, or the number of times she had gone to the toilet or bathroom. A more realistic representation of the time spent in her new room would be around seven thousand and fifty three. So she guessed anyway. It was common for Ella to resort to counting things when she was faced with a difficult scenario or had something on her mind. Numbers were simply that; numbers. They had no other meaning except to represent how many of something there were. Sure, numbers could be attached to meaning like the average number of goals a chaser scored in Quidditch; how many people had gone to Azkaban in a year; or how much money it cost for new dress robes, but if you saw the numbers by themselves, they held no meaning. Counting took so much concentration that there was no room for nasty thoughts to present themselves. Numbers cared not for self pity. Numbers also never lied. When Ella wasn't counting, she was sleeping and while this was a less predictable form of escape, it meant she couldn't deliberately let her mind wander to the strange combination of emotions which were trying their hardest to surface. If she kept herself occupied, she didn't have to acknowledge what had happened. If she didn't acknowledge what had happened, then it was like it didn't exist. You could say that Ella had a habit of placing herself in a self induced state of denial.

One thing she had figured out by looking at the calendar in the kitchen was that the future was out of synch by around two weeks. Why, she did not know. All she knew was that back in her time, it was a week until Christmas while in the present time there were still three weeks until the festive holiday. Well, after five days of sleeping and counting, there was more like two and a bit weeks. She thought what she would do if she had to stay here over Christmas. Would she be expected to buy a present for Sirius? She hardly knew him, let alone what he was interested in and what he liked. If she got Sirius a present, that probably meant she should get a present for Remus and Arthur too. What if they all got her presents and she didn't like them? Should she accept them gracefully and pretend she liked her gifts or be honest and risk hurting their feelings? She spent a good hour trying to figure out what presents would be appropriate then realised Dumbledore had told them they were to stay within the house at all times. That blew her present idea out of the water and dragged her back to reality. Her stomach growled and she thought it must be time to visit the kitchen once more. She hauled herself up off the bed and left the sanctuary of the room. Had Ella known she would be time travelling, she would have packed a spare set of clothes. Lacking this insight, Ella had only the clothes she arrived in which were now creased and wrinkled. The combination of her untidy clothes and messed up hair was enough to give her a crazy cat-lady appearance. She didn't mind. Remus and Arthur had left days ago on some business, they didn't inform her of what, and Sirius was normally nowhere to be seen when she made her trips to the kitchen. All she knew was that the Blacks must have had a pretty good house elf as every time she ventured into the kitchen, there was an assortment of cakes and savoury dishes laid out on the table. No trifle to speak of yet unfortunately.

As she made her way down the stairs, Ella cringed as she saw the assortment of house-elf heads mounted on the wall. This house was one creepy place. She passed Mrs. Black's portrait which was covered with a maroon velvet curtain. Although Sirius had slashed it to pieces, there was still the occasional disembodied voice mumbling profanities which escaped from the portrait. Mrs. Black was one tough bitch. Ella entered the kitchen and was greeted with the familiar sight of a food laden table. She collected a plate and placed upon it some Shepard's pie, chicken and asparagus quiche and some sweet pastries. Ella was not one to care about food 'mingling' on the one plate. She was about to leave the kitchen when the door opened and in came Sirius. Unlike Ella, his appearance was anything but shabby. He must have raided his old wardrobe as he had come to this house wearing his school uniform, as did Ella, but now he was dressed in black jeans, a shirt which was wrinkle free and of all things, red cowboy boots. Sirius paused when he noticed Ella in the room.

"Oh, sorry. I forgot you were here." Still holding her plate full of food, Ella shrugged.

"I got hungry."

Sirius nodded and went to get himself a plate. All Ella wanted to do was to go back to her room but felt it would be rude to leave. Instead, she placed her plate on the table and took a seat. She took a fork and began to eat while Sirius started on the difficult task of choosing what to have for lunch. Eventually, he sat opposite Ella on the table and began to eat. Halfway through lunch, Ella couldn't stand the silence any more.

"Your house elf is a really good cook." She said. Sirius snorted into his meal. Using a napkin to clean himself off, he replied.

"Believe me, Kreacher didn't cook all of this. Apparently he doesn't cook any more. Or do anything for that matter, so expect to be making your own bed."

There was a reason to his bitterness. On his second day in the house he had been on his way to his old room to check for a change of clothes when a voice disrupted his brooding pace.

"_Master Regulus! You have returned, how is this possible?" Kreacher the house elf had come up behind Sirius, clearly mistaking him for his brother. Sirius stopped dead in his tracks and slowly turned around. The look of utter excitement on the house elf's face faded when he saw the face of who was standing before him. Sirius wasn't sure if house elves could pale, but he was sure that Kreacher's face had gone a lighter shade of green._

"_So, Regulus not living at home any more either? He was always such a mummy's boy, I was sure he'd be here til he was at least 50." Sirius waited for a reply. _

"_B-b-b…y-y-you. Miss Bella…" Kreacher managed to say this while pointing a shaky finger at Sirius._

"_What about Bellatrix?" Kreacher shook his head again. _

"_Kreacher need not answer you sir. You is Kreacher's master no longer."_

"_I may have been dead, but now I'm back, and you will tell me about Bellatrix." Kreacher smiled a cruel smile._

"_Kreacher need not tell you! Miss Bella got rid of you! How happy Kreacher was to look after Mistress Black in peace, a shame you were to her!" In his excitement, Kreacher had told Sirius exactly what he had wanted to hear anyway. _

"_Shut up Kreacher and tell me what Bellatrix did!" Sirius was losing his patience. Kreacher smiled again._

"_Miss Bella cursed master Sirius! Gone! Kreacher told Mr. Potter you had left but you were upstairs! You went to help but you never came back! Mistress Black was happy you were gone, but the blood traitors and halfbreeds remained! Mistress will not be happy til only Kreacher remains!" Sirius tried to absorb the information. Kreacher had said Mr. Potter. Sirius made a mental note to ask Remus if he could ask James to come round, if nothing else, he could pick on James for how he had aged. Merlin knows he needed a laugh. He thought about what else the elf had said. His cousin, Bellatrix Black had killed him?_

"_Fucking typical of this inbred family! Killing off anyone worthy of normal civilisation!" _

_He turned to Kreacher, fire in his eyes._

"_I don't care how long I have to stay here, I NEVER want to see you. You will not be in the same room, or even the same floor as me. Now fuck off." _

_Sirius stormed up the stairs, intent on going to his old room. By the time he reached the door he heard a horrible wail from downstairs. Kreacher must have found the slashed portrait. Sirius suddenly felt rather good. He felt even better when he went to his old wardrobe and found some clothes in there._

Back in the kitchen, Ella continued the conversation.

"So if your house elf didn't make all this, then who did?" With a mouth full of food, Sirius put up his finger, indicating he'd be back in a minute and left the room. Ella looked around the empty kitchen, a little confused. Sirius didn't take long to get back though, and he now held a crisp piece of parchment which he held out for Ella to take.

"This note was here the morning after we arrived, along with all the food."

Ella unfolded the note and read:

_Dear Sirius and Ella,_

_I am terribly sorry to hear about your predicament, and I thought after everything you both have been through the last thing on your mind would be to cook yourselves dinner (Merlin knows that house elf wont help you out!). No child should go to bed on an empty stomach so I will cook for you and send the food over with Remus when he visits. _

_You dears take care of yourselves and I shall hopefully see you soon,_

_Molly Weasley (Arthur's wife)_

Ella smiled when she read the note.

"She seems really nice, although she did call us children."

"Yeah, great cook too!" Sirius offered. Ella had to agree, the food she had eaten in the last five days was certainly up to par. Sirius looked at Ella.

"Your eye looks better." He continued to look at her and smiled. "Can't say the same for the rest of you though."

Ella looked up rather shocked, but let a smile grace her face. This didn't stop her self consciously trying to flatten her hair though.

"Um yeah, I wasn't really expecting to run into anyone when I came down here. My eye does feel a lot better though."

"Sorry bout that. I'm not really used to using my wand in the dark." Ella paused and blinked. Then she burst out laughing.

"What? What's so funny?" Ella continued laughing.

"I'm sorry." She calmed herself down so her laugh was more a snigger. Sirius thought about what he had said and rolled his eyes.

"You know that's not what I meant! I really didn't take you for the giggly immature type."

"I'm not that immature. It's just that your wording was…unfortunate. And you have to admit that was funny, especially given the rumours about you at school"

"And what rumours are they?" Sirius asked. Ella paused for a moment but continued anyway.

"Um, the ones about you 'womanising' so to speak." Sirius shook his head.

"You know I have a girlfriend right? I don't cheat."

"I never said I believed them."

"Oh, well that's okay then. You should hear the rumours about you." Ella was taken aback.

"What rumours about me?" What could people possibly be saying about her?

"Don't worry, I choose not to believe them. Unless of course it's true."

"Unless what's true?"

"You know…" Sirius' face was impassive up until this point. His lip twitched and he couldn't help but break into a smile.

"What?" Ella asked.

"You're too gullible. Don't worry, there are no rumours about you I was making it up." Ella let out a sigh and went back to her pastry.

"It wouldn't matter if there were rumours. You shouldn't care what other people think."

"Don't worry, I don't."

"Sure, that's why you sighed with relief, because you don't care." Ella looked at Sirius and simply shrugged.

"And that's why you always look impeccable. Because you don't care."

"Touché."

They had finished their lunch and Ella was going to go back up to her room. As they exited the kitchen, she made her way to the stairs.

"Where're you going?" Sirius asked.

"I was going to go back to my room."

"And what were you going to do in there?" Sirius had been alone for five days. Some company would be nice, and who better than someone who was going through the same thing.

"Sleep. Count." Ella replied. Sirius raised an eyebrow.

"Count?"

"Mmhm."

"Great, you can count in the lounge room then. Come on." Ella was going to protest but Sirius had already walked down the hall and into the lounge room. Ella looked toward the stairs, sighed and followed Sirius. The lounge room was turned into Sirius' haven. On the couch were pillows and some folded blankets while the floor was littered with books and pieces of parchment. Ella picked up the closest book. The title read _Advanced Runes and their origins. _Sirius had apparently begun trying to find a way back.

Ella positioned herself in one of the armchairs while Sirius took his place on the couch which had become his makeshift bed. Ella drummed her fingers on the armrests. It seemed silly to sit in silence when she could have done that in her room.

"I spy with my little eye, something beginning with 'F'." Sirius looked at her in surprise. An impromptu 'I spy' game was not was he was expecting, but it was a welcome distraction from the loneliness and boredom.

"It's not 'future' is it?" He guessed. Ella smiled.

"No." Sirius looked around the room.

"Furniture?"

"Nope."

"Fireplace?"

"Close, but no."

"You're not supposed to tell me if I'm close. That defeats the purpose of the game. Is it fire-poker?"

"Yep. Your turn now."

"Okay. I spy with my little eye, something beginning with…'S'"

"Sofa?"

"No."

"Ceiling…oh hang on that starts with 'C'. Stone wall?"

"No."

"Sirius?"

"Yeah?"

"No, that was my guess."

"Oh, no then." The game went on for ages and when Ella had finally run out of 'S' words, she gave up. Sirius was chuffed that Ella hadn't guessed.

"Knew you'd give up. It was 'surreal situation'." Ella rolled her eyes.

"Should have known you'd choose something impossible to get."

"Impossible? That was the very first thing I thought of. This whole situation is surreal. How often to people accidentally get transported to the future and find out they've died? It's like being inside a crystal ball or something."

It was the first time they had mentioned the strange situation they were in. It was the first time the had talked full stop. Ella finally let herself think about what had happened.

"Do you want to know how it happened?"

"Dumbledore told us, it was the urn."

"No, I mean. How you died?" The once cheerful atmosphere was replaced with a more sombre mood, but it was something they had to talk about. Sirius took this time to stretch himself out on the couch, rubbing his forehead and finally putting his hands behind his head.

"My cousin cursed me. Killing curse I assume. So much for 'family comes first'." Ella looked at Sirius with sympathy.

"I'm sorry."

"Don't be. You know I never understood why people always say 'I'm sorry' when they didn't have anything to do with it." Ella thought about this for a moment.

"I suppose we just don't know what else to say."

"You've got a point. You have any idea what happened to you?"

"None at all. I don't know how I'm going to find out either. How did you find out?"

"Kreacher. House elf, well more like 'bludge elf'. He thought I was my brother, we had a lovely chat and he mentioned that I was dead at the hands of my cousin. You could ask Remus how you died if you wanted to know." Ella laughed, but not out of any happy feeling. It was more of a bitter laugh.

"Does it strike you as strange how casually we're talking about this? Anyway, I was never good friends with Remus, I doubt he would know how I died."

"You never know, I mean we don't know what will happen when we get back. You could've ended up marrying the guy for all we know."

"No, we don't end up married. He was more pleased to see you. If I was his wife and I'd died, you would think he would pay a lot more attention to me."

"Never thought of that. Anyway, he might know or he could find out for you. I'm going to ask him to invite James over. If we aren't allowed to leave this house then I'm going to make the world come to me." There was a long pause in their conversation.

"You think James and Lily ended up with one another?" Ella asked. Sirius stopped looking at the ceiling and returned his attention to Ella.

"I hope so. Could you imagine a forty year old James still pining after Lily. Now that would just be sad."

Before Ella could respond, she jumped as the front door slammed.

"Careful Nymphadora! You'll wake the old hag!" A rough, growling voice said.

"How many times do I have to tell you Moody, my name, is Tonks." Nymphadora replied.

The hallway echoed with the sounds of footsteps which indicated there were more people than just Moody and Tonks. Sirius righted himself on the couch and Ella sat up straighter. Remus entered the room.

"Thank goodness you're both here. Every time I've come back, I haven't been able to find you both. Thought you might have run away or something."

"Nope, we're still here." Sirius replied unnecessarily.

"We're having a meeting. I'll be back once we're done and you can meet everyone."

Sirius and Ella nodded and Remus left the room.

"Wanna check out the meeting?" Sirius asked. Ella shrugged.

"Sure." Sirius motioned for Ella to follow him. He lead her down the corridor to what looked like a storage cupboard. Ella looked at him with a raised eyebrow. Sirius responded to her gesture.

"You and your filthy mind. I'm not going to have my way with you, just get in here. It's the other side of the pantry, we can just see into the kitchen although the sound doesn't travel too well through here."

Ella sighed and made her way into the storage cupboard. She could indeed see into the kitchen and before too long she could just hear the low murmur of conversation. Unfortunately it was too difficult to understand what they were saying. Sirius and Ella stood in the cramped cupboard side by side. Ella hoped she didn't smell as bad as she looked. She could hardly blame it on someone else when they were the only two people in the cupboard. Thinking on the same lines as Ella, Sirius was glad he made sure to shower every day and had a change of clothes. As he looked into the kitchen, he could see several people gathered around the table. He saw the familiar faces of Remus and Arthur. Also at the table was a young lady with mousy brown hair, an older woman with red hair, a rather haggard man with one crazy looking blue eye, a tall dark skinned man as well as a rather shabby looking fellow in a large overcoat who looked like he was going to fall asleep at any moment. Remembering the conversation they overheard in the corridor, Sirius gasped and grabbed Ella's arm while looking at the young lady with mousy hair.

"Fuck! That's little Nymphie!"

"Ouch, Sirius, my arm."

"Oh sorry." He let go of her arm which, in his excitement, he had gripped with force.

"That's like my four year old cousin in there! The youngest one. This is crazy."

"You mean the one that's eyeing Remus?"

"What?" Sirius answered in a high pitched voice, slightly too loud as the meeting halted for a second as everyone looked around for the source of the sound.

"_Must be a mouse." _They heard someone say.

"Don't be stupid Ella, she's not eyeing off Remus." Upon saying this he payed strict attention to the young woman in question. She looked rather miserable and indeed was sending forlorn glances toward his friend. Sirius nudged Ella and motioned for them to exit. He couldn't concentrate on the meeting now. He strode back into the lounge room and Ella followed reluctantly.

"I refuse to believe that." Sirius said as Ella closed the door.

"I'm sorry, but there is something going on between those two." Ella said matter of factly.

"But, she's only four!" Sirius whined. Ella had to hold back her smile.

"She's not four anymore. She'd be in her twenties. It's not that big of a deal."

"Not that big of a deal? I helped change her nappies and Moony's getting off with her! That's just fucking weird." Sirius did a strange shake as if a bug had gotten down his jumper.

"Clearly you didn't notice the way she was looking at him. Whatever they feel, they're not together anymore."

"What are you? A seer or something?"

"No, I'm just an observer. Body language says a lot."

"No, no, no, no…I don't want to know what kind of body language has been going on between those two!" He did another shiver. Ella burst out laughing. It was a strange day. She went from moping, to having lunch with Sirius, to laughing hysterically. Sirius certainly wasn't the person she thought he was.

"See I told you, I didn't marry Remus."

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**A/N: **Hello all!! Hope you liked this chapter, it has more of Sirius and Ella interacting which i'm sure is what people were hanging out for. It'll take a while for them to get to know each other so be patient lol. Again, i shall give a HUGE thank you to the people who reviewed (and an equally big thank you to those of you who read the story, i would love to know what you think). And to show you how wonderful you are, i have listed you here because i think you deserve recognition!!!

PhoenixAngel11 , another stars hollow freak, HpC0ldplay, fluffy-pink-cotton, Sweet A.K

I just realised how long my chapters are...it seems to take ages to write but it only takes about 10minutes to read. Shame.


	4. This is your life

**Disclaimer: **Harry Potter belongs to J.K. Rowling. I just found the page break icon. Very pleased about that.

* * *

Sirius gave another involuntary shudder. He was having difficulty getting his head around the fact that his four year old cousin was now older than him and appeared to have some form of interest in his friend Remus. He and Ella had been in the lounge room for over half an hour now. Ella had suggested they go back into the store cupboard to spy on the meeting, but Sirius refused. Ella had asked why he didn't just talk to Remus about it. This earned her a scoff and evil glare. Despite the fact that he thought it was weird, Sirius was not about to demand his friend not see his cousin merely because he didn't like it. After all, Remus was a werewolf and it couldn't be easy for him to find someone who accepted him as he was. No, Sirius had a much subtler plan in mind.

"Little Nymphie!!!" He cried out when the meeting adjourned and everyone met up in the lounge room. Tonks looked at him as though he was crazy.

"My my, look how grown up you are! The last time I saw you, you were," Sirius put his hand down to his knee, "this high. If you guess how many fingers I'm holding up, I'll give you a lollypop."

"Sirius, I haven't played that game with you since I was six. And it's Tonks, not 'Nymphie'." Tonks replied. Sirius didn't take any notice. He glanced in Remus' direction while he held his hand behind his back and waited for Tonks to guess. She looked at him and smiled, rolling her eyes.

Meanwhile, Remus was looking at Sirius as though he had two heads. He didn't remember his friend being so…odd. He caught Ella's eye and made his way over to her.

"Why is Sirius acting so strange?" Remus asked.

"He knows about you and Nymphadora." Remus' eyes widened.

"What, how-there's nothing going on between me and Tonks." He looked at Ella and realised he couldn't fool her. He sighed.

"How did he know?"

"We spied on the meeting. We figured it out."

"We?"

"Well, I figured it out. Sirius just spazzed out."

"He didn't take it well?"

"Considering he babysat her only a couple of weeks ago, you could say he's a little freaked."

"I see." Remus looked toward Tonks, then at the ground. "It doesn't matter anyway. We're not together."

"Yeah, we figured that out too." Remus gave her a look. "Okay, _I_ figured it out. Do you mind me asking why you're not together?"

Ella internally reprimanded herself. She didn't mean to sound so forward but she was curious.

"It just wouldn't have worked, there were too many things to get past. And then Sirius died and-" Remus trailed off.

He had no idea why he was telling this to Ella. She couldn't possibly understand his reasons for calling off what he had with Tonks. She didn't know about him being a werewolf or about the new war. She didn't know that he had lost so many people close to him or that one of his friends had betrayed them all and was the cause of many of those deaths. He looked down and saw Ella looking up at him with sympathy in her eyes. It should have been him giving her sympathy. He looked back to where Sirius was still playing his 'guess how many fingers' game. Tonks had finally given in.

"Alright. Four."

"Correct." Sirius produced a large yellow lollypop and Tonks took it from him.

"It was always four. You always let me win." She said. There was a sadness to her voice. She sniffed and suddenly hugged Sirius, holding on tight. He was taken aback slightly but hugged back when he got over his shock.

"We've missed you. It hasn't been the same." She said in a low voice.

"Hey, lollypops are meant to cheer you up, not bring you down. How can you be unhappy with a yellow lollypop?" Sirius comforted gently.

Tonks pulled away and swatted him. He was just as she remembered as a small child.

'It's not the lollypop, it's you, you berk. I'm so glad you're back but this is fucking weird." There was a hiss from the corner of the room. Apparently the older lady with red hair disapproved of the use of language.

"Sorry Molly, but you have to admit its-"

"Alright dear, yes we know. Just, try to express yourself with as little cussing as possible." The lady, Molly, made her way over to Sirius and held out her arms.

"My goodness, look at you! You'd only be around my Ron's age. Such a healthy, good looking young boy!"

As Molly embraced Sirius, he looked over her shoulder toward Ella who smiled and raised her eyebrow at him. She found it amusing that even older women found him attractive. As Molly let go, Sirius decided to put on his charm.

"So you're the purveyor of fine foods and desserts then?"

"I'm not sure about calling my cooking 'fine foods and desserts' but I could hardly let you two starve now could I? Where is the young lady? Ella is it?"

For the first time since coming into the lounge room, everyone took notice of Ella. She was still donning her crazy cat-lady appearance. Never had she felt as self conscious as she did now. Molly walked up to her and embraced her just as she did Sirius.

"It's lovely to meet you dear. Now, let me have a look at you." Molly stood back and placed her hands on Ella's shoulders, looking her up and down.

"My goodness, you look a right mess. Not to worry, I brought along some clothes for you. You're a lot taller than my Ginny, but I can easily fix them up for you." Ella looked rather sheepish, but managed to uphold a polite manner. She did feel her dignity had fallen a few notches though.

"Thank you. It's a pleasure to meet you ma'am."

"Such lovely manners you have! But please, call me Molly."

"Well thank you Molly."

"Not a problem! I'm just off to the kitchen to get a start on dinner. It's never too early when you've got plenty of mouths to feed."

As Molly left the room, there was a shuffle as everyone hurried to greet the two time travellers. Sirius and Ella were now acquainted with Kingsley Shacklebolt and Alastor Moody along with Nymphadora Tonks and Molly Weasley. They realised the man with the long overcoat was not there. Not that they cared too much as they hadn't noticed him as someone they knew anyway. Throughout the afternoon, Sirius made sure to keep an eye on Remus while he stayed close to his cousin. Unfortunately Sirius still hadn't learnt any subtlety and was continually trying to play with Tonks as though she was a child again. After a couple of hours and getting to know the newcomers, Sirius realised Ella had been missing for quite some time. He excused himself from the conversation in the lounge room and went looking about the house. Really there was only one place she would be.

Sirius ascended the stairs in his search for Ella. He had been growing tired of endless conversations about his older self, especially since everyone was making sure not to give away any information about the outside world. He didn't see why it should matter. What could be worse than knowing the exact age, time and manner of your own death? He thought of Ella and about how she had no knowledge of how she died. In a strange way Sirius was comforted knowing how he had died as it erased any suspicions he had about the event. Knowing that he died in battle made him feel as though his death at least meant something; that he had died fighting for what he believed in. Knowing that a family member killed him merely justified his feelings of hate and anger toward the Blacks. Ella was not fortunate to have this comfort. Sirius had thought a lot about how Ella had left this world. He couldn't imagine what thoughts may be going through her own mind, having such an unanswered question hovering around. Had she been murdered as he had been? Had she simply died in her sleep? Had she died from some exotic disease? Had she taken her own life? Sirius was certainly glad that he knew what had happened to him. It was a reason to get out of his slump, to accept it and move on, or at least be motivated to return to his own time. As Sirius reached Ella's door, he didn't know what he was going to say and he didn't care. He just wanted to get away from talks of the future and see if she was alright. He was sure he would come up with something. Unlike Ella, he wasn't bothered by silences and never worried about whether a conversation would be interesting or not. He knocked on the door.

"Ella?" He asked, waiting for a response.

"Hang on! Be there in a tick!"

On the other side of the door, Ella had been dressed in only a towel, putting the finishing touches on the clothes Molly had given her. Although the clothes were not brand new or very stylish, Ella was glad to get out of her school robes. Upon hearing Sirius, she rushed around; pulling on a combination of articles she had finished modifying. The last thing she needed was to go from looking like a crazy cat-lady to scantily clad towel-whore. After a minute she walked over to the door and let Sirius in.

"Sorry bout that. Why aren't you downstairs? I'm sure everyone wants to talk to you."

"Yeah, it got a bit boring. All they did was talk about me."

"Oh I'm sure you were just _hating _that." Ella replied. Sirius tilted his head while looking at her.

"You know, sarcasm really doesn't suit you." Ella didn't know how to reply. Sirius continued, unfazed.

"Anyway, I noticed you'd gone and thought I could escape for a while. What were you doing up here? You've been gone for ages." Ella pointed to the pile of clothes scattered over the spare bed.

"Went to the kitchen to see if Molly needed a hand and instead she gave me all these clothes so I've been up here modifying them. They were a bit small." She said, setting herself down on the bed she had claimed on her first night in Grimmauld place. Sirius nodded in a knowing manner.

"And you showered I see." Ella's hair was still wet and she was currently in the process of brushing her locks.

"I figured that I should look at least a bit presentable when we have company."

"Oh I don't know about that. The crumpled robes and crazy hair could have been your new look. And I would always look better than you without even trying!" Sirius answered playfully. He had achieved his aim. Ella had laughed.

"Believe me; I wouldn't want to compete with you. I don't think I could stand all the maintenance." She answered.

"Maintenance? What maintenance, this is all natural I'll have you know." Ella paused while putting her hair into a ponytail and gave Sirius a disbelieving look. He simply smiled. He moved from the door frame and took a seat at the foot of her bed. Ella finished with her hair and looked over at him.

"So you came up here so I could rescue you from boring conversations about yourself?"

"Pretty much. And I wanted to make sure you'd be coming down to dinner and if you'd help me patronise Nymphie so Remus understands how wrong he's being."

"Trust me, if the lollypop game didn't make your point clear, the game of peek-a-boo and baby talk certainly gave you away." Sirius became defensive.

"Well, how else do you expect me to get my point across?" Ella laughed.

"Ever heard of 'less is more'?"

"Yes but that is a contradictory saying. If you eat less it doesn't mean you're more full does it? It only means there's more food on your plate which I'm sure is not what the saying is getting at." Ella looked uncertain at Sirius' explanation.

"I really don't have a clue what you're trying to say and I think you've missed my point but all this talk about food is making me hungry." Sirius nodded.

"Dinner should be nearly ready. You right to go down?"

"Sure. Lead the way."

As they made their way down the stairs, the smell of a hearty roast was wafting their way. Having eaten Molly's food for nearly a week, Sirius and Ella expected nothing but the finest dining. As they entered the dining room they noticed that the group had become smaller. Arthur answered their questioning looks.

"Oh there you two are. Alastor and Kingsley apologise but they had to go away to-" He paused as Remus gave him a look. "-well they had to leave on business. Hope you understand."

"Yeah, sure." Ella answered. Sirius was too busy eyeing the food and making sure to get the seat next to his cousin. Ella noticed this and shook her head.

The dining room was filled with the hum of conversation while everyone dished up their meal. As dinner continued, Ella closed her eyes and felt as though she was back in the great hall at Hogwarts. There was even trifle for dessert. She was brought out of her reverie as she heard Molly address her and Sirius in an excited manner.

"If you'd like, I can ask the kids if they would like to stay here over the Christmas break. I'm sure they would love to meet you both, well meet you Ella and see you again Sirius. We could all spend Christmas day here and make the most of it!"

"Just out of curiosity, how old are the kids?" Sirius asked. He was slightly worried he would have to play babysitter for a week or two. He liked children but if he was going to be used as a day care centre, he'd rather avoid it or be told in advance.

"They'd all be around your age. Well, my Ron is in his sixth year, and I'm sure his friends Harry and Hermione would like to stay too. Ginny's a year younger and we've got five who have left school already."

"Harry did you say? Wasn't that the one I gave the knife to Remus?"

Remus had mentioned Harry in passing the day Sirius had arrived. Never before had Remus hated the fact that Sirius had the memory of an elephant, in fact it often came in handy, particularly in making the marauder's map and remembering the elaborate stories they had come up with to get out of detention. This was the first time Remus wished his friend could forget something. He was sure this conversation would lead to no good.

"Yes, he was the one you gave your knife to." Sirius was curious. His all purpose knife was something he would only pass down to someone he was close to. To someone who was family. He had a sudden thought.

"Please tell me you haven't been keeping secret the fact that I have kids?"

"No Sirius. Harry is not your son."

"Phew, that's okay then. So do I have kids at all?" Sirius asked. He decided to take advantage of his friend finally giving him some information. Remus was like a human crystal ball, minus the crystal, and the crazy fog.

"No. You never got around to having children." Remus felt he was skating on thin ice. He didn't know how much more he could keep from Sirius. How could you tell someone that the reason they didn't have children was because they spent their early years in Azkaban for a crime they didn't commit?

"Oh." Sirius replied. Ella never pictured Sirius as the type to settle down and have a family but she couldn't help but notice he looked a little disheartened by this information.

"Well if he's not my son, then is he yours?" Sirius asked Remus.

"No. He's not my son."

"Then if he's not my son, or your son then that would leave-" Sirius cut himself short and, with a huge grin on his face, turned to Ella. She had covered her hand over her mouth in shock. They were thinking the same thing.

"James didn't marry Lily did he?" Ella asked. She and Sirius were getting rather excited by this point.

"I don't know if that's a wise thing to tell you."

"Oh come on Moony! They got together didn't they? And Harry's their son and I'm like uncle Sirius or something aren't I! Ella can you believe this? After all these years James actually gets the girl." He looked at the wall rather wistfully, not noticing how the atmosphere in the dining room had changed. Ella however, did notice, and was filled with a sudden sense of dread. Something wasn't quite right. She turned toward Remus and saw the ever present sadness in his eyes. She put her fork down. Death tended to make her lose her appetite.

"That reminds me Moony, I was going to ask you to make James get his arse over here. If Christmas is going to be here then why don't he and Lily come too? A couple of extra people wouldn't be a hassle right?"

Sirius' head was suddenly filled with ideas of the perfect Christmas. Well, as perfect a Christmas can be when you've been transported to the future. He was just thinking of how everyone would sit around the table, telling him stories about their time after Hogwarts when Ella's voice interrupted his daydream.

"Sirius, I don't think James will be able to make it for Christmas." Her voice was calm and even but her eyes betrayed her efforts at keeping all emotion locked up.

"What could possibly keep James away from any type of celebration? I mean, the guy practically lives to socialise and-"

As had happened so many times since arriving, Sirius was hit with sudden realisation. He was getting tired of finding things out for himself. He wished there was some kind of 'bad news' warning so that he could prepare himself for the worst.

"Remus, is Ella right. Is James dead?" No-one was expecting Sirius to simply come out and say it. Although it pained him to, Remus replied.

"I'm afraid so." Sirius' face was impassive.

"And Lily?" Remus simply nodded. The dining room was void of noise.

Having witnessed Sirius' reaction to finding out about his own death, Ella was bracing herself for the angry outburst. It never came. Sirius sat in a stunned silence for at least five minutes until he suddenly cleared his throat and stood from his seat. His hands were shaking severely and he had the same pale complexion and look of fear that had graced him when he realised they were in Grimmauld Place. He walked out of the room slowly, as if he had to concentrate on each and every step for fear of falling over. Ella wasn't sure if it was this sight which broke her heart or if the information had finally caught up with her, but she also had to leave.

"Thank you for dinner Molly, it was lovely. I'm going to go up to my room now if you'll excuse me. Goodnight everyone." Ella announced.

While Ella had been taught good manners, it was not something that defined her. Her overuse of etiquette was usually her reaction to uncomfortable or stressful situations. She was sure this situation fell under both categories.

* * *

It had been several hours since Ella returned to her bedroom. She had fallen asleep at one point but was woken by a flash of light in her eyes followed by a deafening crack of thunder. Ella hated thunderstorms. She realised she hated them even more in this house as she made her way past the decapitated elf heads. Lightning lit up the entrance and gave the elf faces a creepy, alive quality. She figured their guests would have left by now as it would have been well past midnight. She needed company and the only other person in the house was Sirius. She cautiously made her way into the lounge room and, sure enough, she saw a slumped silhouette on the sofa, backlit by the fire. She quietly padded over to one of the empty armchairs and made herself comfortable. Sirius sat with his elbows on his knees and hands covering his eyes. He had heard Ella come in but hadn't acknowledged her presence just yet. Eventually, he spoke.

"I want to go back." His voice was low and muffled. Ella jumped as thunder cracked overhead.

"I don't want to be in a world where I don't exist. I have no family and my best friend is gone and Remus has changed and no doubt Peter is not even around anymore. If this is what we have to look forward to, then I don't want to know?"

When we feel great emotion, good or bad, the first sign is apparent in the voice. Ella could tell that Sirius was barely keeping it together. His hands had not left his eyes either. She would have said something, maybe an 'I'm sorry', but she remembered what Sirius had said about not getting why people said such words when they had done nothing. Instead, she stayed silent until words finally found her.

"Twenty seven." She said. Sirius removed his hands from his eyes and looked at her. He looked a mess.

"What about it?" He asked.

"That's how many pieces of parchment are on the floor in here."

Sirius looked at the floor and counted. There were indeed twenty seven pieces of parchment.

* * *

**A/N: **I know it has gone morbid again, but it's important for these two to react properly to the situation so they can move on (don't worry, the humour comes back in a chapter or so...well that's what i'm planning anyway)...if nothing else, you can all revel in the fact that you now have a sad, mopy Sirius to comfort any way you like...As for the Sirius/Ella update, don't worry, it will happen, it's just that they still don't really know each other at all (Ella is a bit more tuned in to Sirius than he is to her...remember his 'sarcasm doesn't suit you' line???)

Okay, i ramble on too much at the end here. THANK YOU AGAIN TO MY REVIEWERS!!! I love your feedback and as always I really want to know what you all think. Stay tuned!!!


	5. Black, white and read all over

**Disclaimer: **Harry Potter belongs to J.K, that's all that matters at the end of the day!!!

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Ella knew the week had been extraordinarily difficult for Sirius, but couldn't help feeling a little sorry for herself also. She sat on the floor in the master bedroom, surrounded by newspapers with their daring black print boring into her vision. Photos of Sirius stared maniacally up at her, preceding text which exclaimed that he had killed thirteen muggles along with his friend, Peter Pettigrew, in a public street. The newspaper under that one told of the tragic deaths of James and Lily Potter; how their house was all but destroyed and that their young boy, Harry, had thwarted 'He Who Must Not Be Named' in his final attempt at committing murder. The other newspapers spanned many years, some reporting the usual atrocities associated with war while others rejoiced in the war's end and the imprisonment of so called 'death eaters'. The yellowing paper which Ella held told of the life imprisonment of Sirius Black. He was exiled to Azkaban for committing murder and being involved in leaking information to the dark lord, ultimately leading to the capture and murder of James and Lily Potter.

Ella's foot had fallen asleep but she didn't notice. The lack of feeling in her foot was nothing compared to how numb she felt at this very moment. Although she still didn't know much about Sirius, she had learnt enough about him to know that he was not capable of committing such terrible acts, especially given how opposed he was to the dark arts. Ella thought about the funny, kind (well, most of the time), confident boy she had seen at Hogwarts and couldn't possibly imagine him betraying his friends and murdering so many people. While they hadn't talked much over the last week, they had formed quite an efficient team. They spent most of their time in the study, poring over various books and articles in an attempt to find a way back to their time. At certain intervals, one of them would take it upon themselves to fix something to eat and drink. They had gotten into the habit of looking after one another. It had started the day after finding out about James and Lily. Ella had woken on the armchair in the most uncomfortable position, legs hanging over one armrest while her head lay at an odd angle as it rested against the other. Despite her stiff neck and numb arm, Ella noticed she was perfectly warm. Sirius had placed a large, soft blanket over her during the night which had saved her from freezing when the fire had burned low. She had looked over to where Sirius was balancing a large book and some parchment on his knees and realised if they were going to make it back, they needed to work together and look after one another. Ella had untangled herself from her awkward position and returned the gesture by making Sirius and herself breakfast. They had done this ever since.

Ella read through the articles again. She decided she didn't like the Daily Prophet. They painted such ugly pictures. Despite the information being presented to her in black and white, she believed Sirius was innocent. She wanted to think it was because she trusted her instincts and not because she just didn't want to believe she was stuck in the future with a raving lunatic who was sure to kill her in her sleep. She decided to blindly accept that Sirius was innocent, if she thought about the latter, there would not be an object in the house which wasn't counted. Ella folded up the newspapers and looked for a hiding place. A good hiding place. Sirius had been through enough since coming here and didn't need to know he spent 12 years of his life wrongfully imprisoned. It was all about looking after one another now and if something as simple as hiding newspapers would prevent Sirius another emotional breakdown, then that's what Ella would do. Still not realising her foot was asleep, she tried to stand only to fall straight back down. It took her five minutes to begin her search as she kept wincing each time her foot moved the slightest bit. Pins and needles were a pain. Literally. She searched the room for over half an hour before finally finding out that the window sill came away easily. Apparently it was already an effective hiding spot as Ella found a couple of bottles of firewhiskey as well as a collection of mulled meads. Unfortunately there was no space for the newspapers. The bottles would have to come out. What a pity.

Ella looked for Sirius in the study, only to find he had retired for the day. She looked out the window and realised it was dark outside. She hadn't realised she was reading for so long. She finally found Sirius in the lounge room, a large platter of food in front of him.

"Where have you been? I'd made all this food but I thought you'd disappeared. I thought I was going to have to eat it all by myself!" Sirius exclaimed.

Although they hadn't spoken much, when they did converse the tone was light. Since coming here they seemed to develop a silent form of communication. They knew when not to talk about something. The death of James and Lily was a topic on the 'not to be discussed' list.

"Oh because you would have hated to eat all that food yourself." Ella replied.

"Well, no, but I need you here to eat it and tell me how great of a cook I am. But you're late now and it's cold so you don't get any."

"Okay then, you can't have any of what I found."

"I don't want what you found anyway." He answered playfully.

"Fine, more alcohol for me then." Sirius snapped his head up so quickly he cricked his neck.

"Alcohol?" Ella held up her interlocked arms where the six bottles of alcohol were bundled.

"Yeah, I found them in the master bedroom. But I'm sure you'll be fine with your wonderful food."

"First of all, thank you for calling my food wonderful. Second of all, you found that in a room in _my_ house so technically it's _my _alcohol."

Ella simply placed all the bottles on the coffee table and summoned a glass for herself. She smiled at Sirius as she poured herself some firewhiskey.

"Smuggness doesn't really suit you."

"According to you, no emotion suits me. You're just sore because you don't get any."

"No! I'm just looking out for you! You don't want people to go around saying you're a sarcastic bitch or are smugger than a smug girl can be smug, and if you drink _all _that alcohol yourself then there will be rumours about you being a drunk and you don't want that now do you?"

"And how are people going to know unless you tell them?"

"Well if you give me some then I won't spread rumours that you're intimate with Old Odgin here."

"Blackmailing me now are you?" Ella was convinced the boy in front of her couldn't possibly have done what the papers reported. The pout on Sirius' face certainly wasn't the look of a crazed killer. She was rather enjoying their game.

"Blackmailing? No, it's called negotiation. I'm just merely suggesting that you will wither and starve if you don't give me some of that firewhiskey because you will have nothing to eat."

"You do know I can cook for myself don't you?"

"Yes but I can hide all the ingredients and, as you said yourself, you wouldn't get any of my 'wonderful', delicious food which I spent all afternoon preparing."

Ella sipped her drink and made a thoughtful face. She took another sip. Sirius was looking at her with sheer desperation.

"Oh come on! You can have all you want, take it all! I'll make more if you want, just _please _can I have a drink?" Ella sighed dramatically.

"Oh all right then."

Sirius jumped off the couch and hugged her so enthusiastically that Ella had to hold her drink well away for fear of dropping the glass.

"My persuasive techniques are second to none!" Sirius said joyfully as he poured himself a glass and took a sip. He leaned back lazily.

"Don't think for a second that your persuasive techniques swayed me whatsoever. I was planning on giving you some anyway." Sirius narrowed his eyes at her.

"I prefer to believe my version."

"Whatever makes you sleep better at night." Ella said. Before she took another sip, she held out her glass. Sirius chinked his glass with hers.

"To the future." He said.

* * *

After almost a full bottle of firewhiskey, the effects were beginning to show. Sirius and Ella sat at either end of the sofa, throwing a bread roll back and forth. Ella burst out laughing as the roll hit her square on the nose.

"You're not supposed to piff it at my nose! My nose can run but it can't catch."

"That's not true, it can catch a cold."

"Yeah well you left the rolls long enough, they are cold."

"Well see, you should have been able to catch it then!"

"No, because…" Ella thought for a moment. She had nothing. "Oh, you suck."

She then threw the roll hard at Sirius so it bounced off his head and rolled across the floor.

"Look at the roll roll!" She said with zest.

"The roll? Who cares about the roll! You buggered up my hair!" Sirius exclaimed, putting his hand through his hair to try and flatten it again. Ella shook her head at him.

"Stop being so vain, I really don't care what your hair looks like."

"Well it's lucky I don't care what you think then isn't it." Sirius replied, now taking the opposite effect and using his hand to craftily mess up his hair. After pouring herself another drink, Ella addressed Sirius.

"You know, Margy would be _very _jealous of me right now." Sirius stopped messing his hair.

"Margy? As in Margot? As in Margot Margot? As in Margot Douglas, the quiet studious Gryffindor in our very year level?"

"Not so sure about the quiet bit, you should see her rave about stuff, you for instance. But yes her." Sirius tilted his head.

"You know, I never would have known she liked me."

"Who said anything about her liking you?" Ella said cryptically.

"You said she would've been jealous of you. I just assumed…"

"Well maybe you shouldn't assume. She could have had dreams about time travelling." Sirius looked a little taken aback. He almost felt a little foolish. Almost.

"Did she have dreams about time travelling?"

"No. But she could of!" Ella offered. "Then again, who would want to time travel if this is what its like? Everyone is de-" She was cut off by Sirius' hand across her mouth. He clamped down hard.

"NO!!! We were having fun! I thought we had a silent agreement, we're not going to talk about that! We'll get back and change everything and we'll all live happily ever after you got it?" Ella looked at him with doe eyes and nodded. His hand had weakened slightly and Ella tried to say something. The hand clamped down harder.

"La la la la la! Not listening. I'm not moving my hand until you PROMISE you're not going to talk about that. You promise?" Ella nodded.

"You have to promise!" Ella nodded again. "I don't believe you, you have to promise!" Sirius said again. Well, more like yelled it in her face. Ella rolled her eyes and licked Sirius' hand. He pulled it away quickly.

"Did you just lick me?" He said staring at his hand.

"Yep. I didn't take you for the happy ending kind of bloke." She said unfazed.

"Who cares, you LICKED me!"

"I know, I was there! Margy would definitely be jealous of me now."

"What, she has dreams about licking me too?" Sirius smirked.

"Probably, who knows? Hey I have a question."

"Shoot."

"If you weren't going out with Miranda, would you consider Margy?" Sirius thought for a moment.

"I don't know. I suppose so. She seems nice, but I'd have to know her better."

Ella smiled.

"Good answer." Sirius looked confused.

"How was that a good answer?"

"It's hopeful. I like to know she would have a chance." Ella said simply. Sirius was about to say something but he was cut off by Ella.

"I'm bored, we've been sitting here for two hours. Let's put on some music."

* * *

The next hour, and coincidentally the next bottle of firewhiskey, was spent with Sirius and Ella listening to music and using the cutlery as microphones. Unfortunately, the only record they could find was the soundtrack from 'The Sound of Music'. Ella raised her eyebrows at Sirius.

"That's the best you could find? Are you sure you're not gay?"

"Shuddup. I used to play it to piss off my parents. They hate everything muggle-ish." Sirius put the record on the turn table and tried to put the needle into position. Needless to say he was a little unsteady and the needle scraped across the vinyl producing a loud crackle. After picking himself up off the floor, which he had fallen on in shock, he very carefully and very slowly placed the needle down. Eventually, the record began to play 'Maria'. Ella started to sway to the music…or from the alcohol, she wasn't sure which.

"So, you'd play your gay music to annoy your parents then?"

"I believe the political right name is 'homosexual' music."

"I believe it's supposed to be 'politically correct'. You're getting your murds wuddled up."

"Bah! And you're not? Least I'm not homophobo!"

"I deliberately said the wrong thing! And I'm not homophobo, argh I mean homophobic, I just think it's funny you have this album. I love the 'Sound of Music'."

"Well what's your beef then? Actually I like it too. Heard it so much it's hard not to, and I'm comfortable enough with my sexuality to admit that." He said proudly.

Their banter continued until they heard the words 'you are sixteen, going on seventeen' when Sirius got up off the sofa and held his hand out to Ella. She didn't have faith in her dancing abilities, drunk or sober, but Ella took his hand anyway. He tried a complicated twirl and Ella fell on the ground.

"You really suck at dancing." He said bluntly. Ella got defensive as she pulled herself up.

"Well you were the one who dropped me! And sorry if I'm not from a hoity toity English la de dah family who get dancing lessons. Not all wizarding families are as traditional as yours."

"And not all girls are as clumsy as you. Fallen down any stairs lately?"

"Your wit astounds me." She said dryly, finally getting herself upright. Sirius stepped closer and put a hand on her waist while using his other to grasp her hand.

"Okay, now stand on my feet." He said.

"You're telling me I can't dance but you want me to stand on your feet."

"Exactly." Ella rolled her eyes and placed both her feet upon his. Before she had time to brace herself, Sirius started to spin them in a fast waltz. Ella grabbed hold of his neck tight as they twirled around the lounge room. She laughed hysterically when he dipped her, mostly because he was as unsteady as her and they nearly fell over. Fortunately, Sirius was able to grab hold of the back of the sofa before they went right over. Ella was hanging off his neck like a monkey. On the way up, Ella knocked her head on the armrest and laughed harder.

"Ouchouch ow. That's gunna bruise."

"Don't be such a baby!" Sirius said. He looked down and saw a red lump forming on her head. "Oh, okay, maybe we should spin slower from now on."

"What why?" She said quickly, her words running together.

"You're head's fine, there's no lump!"

"There's a lump?" She said in a high pitched voice, then used her free hand to feel her head. She slapped Sirius upside his own head when she felt the tender egg. "You prick! I'm gonna get cushion!"

"Cushion? Do you want to lie down or are you trying to say con-cushion, argh now you have me doing it, concussion?"

"Um, the second one. Actually the first one, a lie down would be grood."

"Grood?" Sirius asked with a laugh. He leant her against him as they stumbled their way around to the front of the sofa.

"I wanted to say great then changed my mind half way and changed it to good, hence 'grood'" Ella replied as she sat on the sofa, her head leaning against the back cushion.

Sirius sat beside her in a similar fashion, except his head was tilted to the side as he surveyed Ella. The night had been fun and it was a welcome distraction from reading up on ancient pottery and moving runes. For some reason he didn't picture Ella to be the drinking type but she had certainly proved him wrong. She sat there with her hand lightly trailing the lump on her head, wincing every now and then when she pressed too hard. He smiled at this. Ella was a girl who would do anything to avoid thinking about a terrible situation and yet here she sat with a painful bump on her head and she was touching it which was clearly making it hurt more. She was a myriad of contradictions which he planned to figure out. He wasn't sure why but as soon as he thought this, he remembered his girlfriend Miranda. He hadn't thought about her much as there had been too many dramas to deal with, but sitting here made him think of how much he missed her. He missed the physical contact, whether it was a simple peck on the cheek or a full on make out session. He missed how easily he could lose himself when he was with her. He missed hearing about things he really didn't care about such as who was talking about who behind the other one's back or how much a pair of shoes cost in a shop window. He missed the feeling of being wanted.

"You okay Sirius?" Ella asked, her 's' sounding more like a 'sh'. She noticed his sad, longing look and wondered what he could be thinking.

Usually when someone was looking at her, Ella played up the fact, making sure to smile brighter, talk cooler and become more animated. It didn't matter if it was a teacher, a friend or someone as gorgeous as Sirius Black, when eyes were on her, she gave them all she had. Ella didn't know whether it was the bump on the head, the amount of alcohol she'd consumed or how tired she was but she didn't feel the need to be the best she had to be at this very moment.

"I would kiss you right now if I didn't have a girlfriend." He replied.

Neither of them expected this to come from his mouth. Ella couldn't help but feel a little jolt in her stomach. It was these little compliments that Ella held on to. She liked the little things. Not wanting to deal with an awkward situation, she decided to make a joke of it.

"Well it's lucky you do have a girlfriend because it saves me having to reject you." Sirius didn't miss a beat.

"Well that wouldn't matter, I'd just go find Margot. She'd be up for it."

"No doubt she would be." Ella laughed. As she did so, her head throbbed again and she sighed.

"You should probably rest. You have the couch, I'll take the armchair this time." Sirius said and Ella nodded. He grabbed a blanket and a pillow and set up camp on the armchair. He turned when he felt a tap on his shoulder.

"Sirius?"

"Hm?"

"Would you settle for a hug?" Ella asked, arms outstretched. Sirius nodded and moved in to embrace Ella. Sirius received a face full of hair for his efforts but the hug was comforting. He felt the vibration through Ella's shoulder when she spoke.

"We'll be okay. I'm sure we will."

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**A/N: **I hope you like this chapter, I wasn't really sure about it because there was heaps of dialogue but hopefully you get to know a bit more about Sirius and Ella...as do they about each other!!! They're becoming closer and looking out for one another so it's a start! Oh and this time I absolutely PROMISE harry and the gang will be in the next chapter...it's the first one i wrote for the story so i just have to tweak it here and there to make it work...

As always THANK YOU, THANK YOU for the reviews and for reading my story (i almost fainted when i saw how many hits it had gotten!) so drop me a line and tell me what you think!


	6. Waking on a LazySusan

**Disclaimer: **I'll give you two guesses who owns Harry Potter, and the first guess doesn't count.

**A/N: **I updated, its a miracle!!! Sorry it's been over a week, I would give you all the excuses under the sun but i'm sure the only thing that matters is that the chapter is up. This chapter wasn't actually the one i already had written...it ended up being completely different than i planned so the next chapter will probably be the one which was supposed to be here...don't know if that made sense...anyway, happy reading!!!

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**Chapter Six: Waking on a Lazy-Susan **

Ella's head was pounding. Hard. What worried her most was the irregularity of her heartbeat which was all she could hear. Bangbang, bang, bangbangbang. That couldn't be normal. She risked opening her eyes and slowly sat up. She would have sighed with relief if she weren't so fearful of her head pounding more. Someone was knocking on the lounge room door, it wasn't her heart after all. Not caring to answer, she flopped back down on her pillow and closed her eyes.

Sirius also woke to the sound of tapping. Luckily for him, he hadn't hit his head on the armrest the night before so he didn't experience the same headache that Ella did. This didn't stop him from feeling a little dizzy from the night's escapades nor from feeling very stiff from sleeping at an odd angle on the armchair. He really should just move into his old room so he could sleep in a bed. The tapping had stopped but knowing it would be Remus he decided he should probably get out of bed. Or should that be out of chair? He righted himself and rubbed his eyes with the heels of his hands. He looked over to where Ella was laying, hand resting on the lump on her head. Her eyes were open, just. For some reason he felt guilty every time he looked at her. He backtracked through the night's events. They had played catch with a bread roll. He had hit her hard in the nose but he was sure that wasn't it. He had made sure they didn't talk about how everyone was dead. No, that wasn't it. They had danced. Sort of. Or so he thought he remembered anyway, things were a tad fuzzy. She had hit her head but that wasn't his fault so what was he feeling guilty about? Shit. He stopped rubbing his eyes and quickly snapped his head up. He looked like a startled owl. He had kissed Ella. He remembered staring at her on the sofa as she trailed her fingers lightly over the large lump forming on her head. He had said something but couldn't remember what it was. He remembered her hands trailing around his waist, her breath on his neck, the familiar tingle he felt when he held someone close. Normally this tingle would be brought about by Miranda, but seeing as though he had been deprived of intimate contact for two weeks now, he was sure it wouldn't take much for any girl to make him feel that way. He thought it odd that he remembered holding her tight, leading her back to the sofa, trailing hot kisses down her neck and eventually to her mouth where she responded eagerly, and yet, he woke on the armchair.

"I told you I would get a massive bruise. My head is caning!" Ella interrupted Sirius' thoughts.

"I'm sorry." He blurted out. She was taking this rather well, he thought.

"Well you should be, making me dance when you know I'm clumsy and then you fall over and expect me to catch you? I can't hold myself up let alone a six foot man!"

"No I'm sorry about, well I'm sorry about that too but I was talking about the- argh I'm dizzy- about the other thing, after the dancing."

"After the dancing?" Ella replied. _Oh shit_, Sirius thought, _she doesn't even remember! I took advantage of a drunk girl!_ This wasn't his finest moment. He had to make her remember.

"Yes after the dancing, I, you and, oh shit, Miranda! What am I gunna do? Fuck I'm an idiot, she's going to kill me!" Sirius continued mumbling incoherently. It was the closest Ella had seen him to being nervous and uncomfortable. She was sure Miranda must have him whipped if he was so worked up over what happened the night before.

"Sirius calm down, you have nothing to worry about. Miranda's not here, she can't do anything to you and like she could get mad at you anyway, all you did was say you'd kiss me if you weren't going out with her, you were drunk anyway- oh that doesn't reflect very well on me then does it?" She added.

Sirius' facial expression had evolved from startled owl to stunned fish. He scanned his memory, or what was left of it from last night. He was sure he had kissed her. It was so vivid.

"Sirius, that is what you were talking about yeah?"

"Yes," he said slowly, "yeah that's what I meant. I said I'd kiss you, but I didn't. Sorry."

"Like I said, don't worry about it. I'm sure you're safe, Miranda won't know anyway." Sirius thought that was a good point. So he hadn't kissed her. That would explain how collected she was right now. But his memory was so vivid. Guilty though he felt for thinking such things about Ella, he couldn't help but marvel in his own elaborate imagination. He was sure he could survive however long without Miranda if he was capable of playing out such scenes in his mind.

Not caring to dwell on the topic further, and feeling rather relieved, Sirius put the apparent memory to the back of his mind. There was something even more interesting to focus on as he and Ella heard voices from the hallway.

"Ronald! You would think years after the evolution of man that you would be capable of walking upright and speaking coherently!"

They heard a girl's voice exclaim. Intrigued, they rose from their resting places to investigate. Well Sirius rose with ease while Ella tried to stand up, sat down again, stood up and sat down again. Sirius was already at the door so he was no help. She eventually got herself up by rolling onto the floor and using the armrest as a leaning post. She felt her head throb again and glared at the offending armrest. A hangover she could handle. A massive lump on her head was a whole other matter. She eventually made her way to where Sirius was and they entered the hallway.

At the entrance, there stood four people around their age as well as Molly and Arthur. Sirius took one look at the boy with messy black hair and glasses and jumped to the most obvious conclusion.

"James!" He shouted and proceeded to run toward the boy, giving him a rough, brotherly hug.

"You prick! I thought you were dead! That's gotta be the best one you and Moony have pulled on me my friend!" He continued as he punched the boy in the arm.

Sirius had run at him so quickly, the boy and his friends hadn't really had time to react. Due to her mind and body working slightly slower and more careful this morning, Ella had realised who the boy was before the thought had even occurred to Sirius. She walked over to Sirius and lightly grabbed his wrist, perhaps to stop him from hitting the boy again.

"Sirius, I think this may be Harry." Realisation dawned on Sirius and his eyes widened. He quickly recovered himself.

"Oh, right." He cleared his throat and held out his hand to Harry. "Sorry, thought you were your dad. Good friends we are. I'm Sirius. I heard you ruined my knife."

Not the most tactful introduction, but it did the trick. Harry shook his hand but still looked a little stunned. He gave a laugh.

"Sirius? This is really nuts." Harry finally said, then he hugged Sirius in the same way he had moments before.

"We thought you were dead, what are you doing here? And looking all…young."

"It's all fucked up I tell you. We've been here for around two weeks and we still have no idea what's going on."

"Language Sirius!" Molly hissed from the corner.

"This must have been what Professor Lupin was talking about." The girl with bushy brown hair said.

"_Professor _Lupin? Remus didn't tell you we were here?" Sirius asked the group.

"Well not exactly. All he said was that we would be staying at Grimmauld place for Christmas and that there was a situation we needed to be informed on. This, however we did not expect, I mean who would have thought you would have come back as a teenager this is simply mind boggling!" The girl answered.

"Merlin Hermione, I'm sure a 'no' would have been enough." The tall red head said.  
"I take it you're Ronald then?" Sirius said, holding out his hand for the boy to shake.

"Call me Ron. This is Hermione and that's my sister Ginny." He said, motioning to the two girls standing either side of him. Sirius shook everyone's hand in turn.

"So you're all going to be staying for Christmas then?"

"Yeah I guess we are." Said Harry. He still looked a little at awe.

"Great! We could do with the company, gets a bit boring around here you know?" He replied.

"Hey!" Ella said indignantly. It seemed everyone had forgotten she was there. Everyone looked at her and paused for a moment as if trying to figure out if they recognised her. She felt a little uncomfortable.

"I'm Ella, nice to meet you all." Harry, Ron, Hermione and Ginny were all brought out of their reverie and introduced themselves again. As this was happening, Remus had made his way down the stairs and stopped abruptly.

"Oh, I see you've all met. I take it you know who this is then Harry?" Remus said.

"Sure do. It's Sirius. He's back." Harry replied with a smile. Most of the guilt he had felt since Sirius' death seemed to be washed away at this point.

"Um, it's more like we came forward." Sirius corrected.

"Forward?"

"I think you all better come into the kitchen so I can explain everything." Remus said to Harry and his friends. He then addressed Sirius and Ella.

"You two can wait in the lounge room, it's nothing you haven't heard before, I promise. It just might be easier if it's just me telling the story."

"But we were the one's who know what happened, why don't we-"

"Sirius." Remus replied, warning in his voice. Sirius rolled his eyes.

"You've become such a wet blanket in your old age. Come on Ella." He said and turned to head down the hall again. Ella saluted while his back was turned as if to say 'yes sir' which got a chuckle from the crowd watching. She eventually followed.

It had been over half an hour. They sat on the sofa in a similar fashion to the night before, heads leaning heavily on the backrest. Ella found this position helped ease her headache. Sirius found that it stopped the room from spinning too much.

"I can't believe that's James and Lily's son. He looks just like James, even the stupid messy hair." Ella replied without turning her head.

"He has Lily's eyes though, did you see that?"

"Let's hope he's got more of Lily's personality too then."

"How can you say that, he's your best friend?"

"That's why I _can_ say it. I love the guy but apparently he can be a wank."

"Apparently so can you." Ella scoffed.

"I resent that."

"Resent away, it doesn't bother me."

"Well what does bother you, I'll do that instead."

"Why do you want to bother me?"

"Because you're bothering me."

"And when did I start to bother you exactly?"

"Since the room started spinning of its own accord."

"And that's my fault how?"

"Because you found the alcohol we drank last night."

"I found it in your house so it's your alcohol so technically it's your own fault the room is spinning. Now you have to go bother yourself."

"You're annoying me so much I didn't even listen to that."

Sirius opened one eye and looked at Ella. Before she could retort, the door opened and in came the four teenagers. They looked quizzically at them sitting on the sofa, looking rather worse for wear. Sirius smiled.

"This is just freaky. You look exactly like James." Sirius said, noticing the look on Harry's face.

"I get told that a lot."

"You've got Lily's eyes though." Ella added.

"You knew my mother?" He asked eagerly.

Everyone had taken a seat by this point, as if waiting for the most exciting fairy tale to be told. For Harry, that's almost exactly what it was like.

For the next hour or so, Sirius told stories of his time at Hogwarts, informing Harry and his friends of the antics he got up to with James and the Marauders. Remus had told Harry, Ron, Hermione and Ginny not to inform the two time travellers of what the wizarding world had become. He had warned rather fiercely to avoid talking about Lord Voldemort or about the role Harry had played in the story. This pretty much left the storytelling up to Sirius and Ella, but Harry didn't mind. He loved hearing about his parents and it was just a bonus that Sirius had come back to him. At one point, Sirius was talking fairly animatedly to the other boys (quite an effort considering he was still experiencing bouts of vertigo) so the girls decided to let them have their fun. They sat just away from the boys but kept watching what was going on. Ginny was the first to speak.

"Is it wrong to think that the teenage version of our dead forty year old friend is really good looking?" She said while they watched as Sirius re-enacted a particular quidditch move.

"Only if you're into necrophilia." Ella responded. Ginny and Hermione laughed

"If all dead people looked that good, I would certainly consider it." Ginny responded. Hermione looked warily at Ella.

"If you don't mind me asking, are you two together?"

"What, me and Sirius?" Hermione nodded, not sure if it was an inappropriate question. Ella smiled and answered.

"No, don't worry, we're not together so you can say what you like about him." Ginny looked rather relieved as she said this. It didn't cross her mind that they could have been a couple, and she'd been sitting there saying how attractive he was.

"But I will warn you that he does have a girlfriend back home, so you're out of luck there. Not that you two mind I'm sure."

"What do you mean by that?" Hermione asked.

"Oh nothing." Ella replied cryptically. Hermione and Ginny eyed her warily but didn't expand on the topic. They didn't want to voice what they assumed about her comment. It was Ella who changed the topic.

"It must be so weird for you all to see Sirius at this age. I mean he must be so different to the Sirius you knew." Hermione and Ginny thought about this for a moment.

"In looks, yes he definitely is different. But otherwise he seems pretty much the same. I suppose he never really got a chance to have the full responsibilities of adulthood because-" Ginny cut herself off when she noticed the look she got from Hermione, which didn't go unnoticed by Ella.

"You mean because he was imprisoned at such a young age?" She asked helpfully.

"He didn't do it, he was wrongly accused." Hermione defended automatically.

"Don't worry, I figured he could never sell his friends out, I had a feeling he was innocent. It's kind of nice to know that though, I didn't really want to have the doubt lurking and me not being able to sleep for fear of being slice and diced in the middle of the night." She gave a little chuckle at this thought.

"How did you find out?" Hermione asked.

"There was a bundle of papers upstairs. Can you not mention it to him though please? He's been through a lot already, I mean he's dead and so is his best friend and I really don't think he'd cope that well knowing his life turned out that way. And I'm the one who has to put up with him because apparently we have to stay in this creepy house the whole time." She said in very quick succession.

"We were never going to mention it. I mean you're not even supposed to know. Don't worry, we wont say a thing." Ginny reassured.

"Thanks."

"No problem. Anyway, I don't see how this could be any weirder for us than it is for you, learning about the future like this."

"Do you have any idea why you came here or how to get back?" Hermione asked.

"I don't really think we're here for any reason. We just came here because we were in the wrong place at the wrong time. And we have no idea how we are going to get back. We've been researching it for the whole time we've been here." Ella said, not mentioning the five or so days they hadn't really researched at all due to the fact that they had been moping around. She continued.

"So far the only thing we have found out is that runes will change only with the aid of powerful magic and usually it is to prevent the reader from finding out the intended message."

"That's really helpful then." Ginny stated sarcastically.

"Tell me about it! We were sure all we'd have to do was figure out what the runes meant and we'd get back, but because they were moving runes it would be impossible to know what they meant anyway. So now we're focussing more on the pottery side of things, trying to find out about ancient urns and the like. We haven't had much luck so far."

"Was there anything in the urn when it broke?" Hermione asked. She was itching to be of some help in the matter.

"Yeah there was this dust that we choked on, but we've looked all through the house and couldn't find any books that had remotely to do with dust."

"What about time-turners?"

"No, Dumbledore was adamant that this had nothing to do with time-turners. They allow two people to exist at one time while, clearly, there is only one me and Sirius in this time." Ella had glanced at the coffee table where Sirius' all purpose knife was sitting.

"You see, Sirius had that knife and a map of some sort in his pockets during our detention that night. When we came here, only the things that didn't exist in this time came with us. That's how the knife was still in his pocket but the map wasn't because apparently the map still exists. And clearly they got rid of Sirius' wand when he went into Azkaban so that's why he still has his wand as well." Ella had stopped talking and drew her own wand from her pocket. It was just as it had always been.

"You still have your wand. So that must mean it doesn't exist anymore, right?" Hermione asked, trying to piece together the story. Still looking at her wand, Ella took a while to answer.

"But why would my wand no longer be here?" She mused.

It was a thought that had never occurred to her. She was very attached to her wand and, while she was extremely clumsy, she always knew where her wand was at all times and had always taken good care of it. She came from a wizarding family and had been taught her whole life about the importance of carrying your wand with you, no matter where you went. Although she knew she was dead in this time, she was sure her wand would have still been around, or rather she hoped it would be. She hated to think that the reason she had her wand with her now was because she had died in the most horrific way, her wand destroyed by some evil curse. Or perhaps she had also ended up in Azkaban and had her wand taken off her and broken to pieces. She also realised that from every single page she had read and analysed of the Daily Prophets upstairs, there had been noting, not one iota of information about her. She didn't know how she was going to do it, but she realised at that moment that she wanted to know what happened to her. She heard her name being called.

"Yeah?" She answered and re-pocketed her wand.

"These guys don't believe me and I need an eye witness. Please tell them about the time me and my friends turned the water in the lake to jelly."

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**A/N: **So what did you think? Good? Bad? Ugly? Have any burning questions you want answered? Hopefully it pleased those of you who were waiting for Harry and the gang to arrive, don't worry there'll be more of them in the story. This chapter is set on Christmas eve, so that means the next chapter will be Christmas.

Thank you so much to my reviewers once again, you make my day!!! I got a couple of new alerts too so thank you to the new readers!!! I do reply to all of my reviews so if you want to know something (and it doesn't give away too much about the story) I am sure to get back to you!!! Hopefully that'll entice some more of you to review lol...


	7. Irrational Rationalism

**Disclaimer: **You know it's not mine. I know it's not mine. **

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**Chapter Seven: Irrational rationalism**

Sirius had forgotten how different his old room was compared to the rest of the house. Decked out in Gryffindor colours with the muggle posters permanently stuck to the walls, this room could have been in a different house. It could have been a part of Hogwarts. He lay awake, as he had been all night, with his arms resting behind his head. It wasn't the excitement of Christmas which kept him awake, but the presence of his best friend's son in this very house. There was a sudden loud cracking noise and Sirius was not alone any more.

"What the fuck!" Sirius exclaimed, seeing double. He was sure he had never had a hangover which lasted longer than one day, but here he was seeing two of a red-headed stranger standing right above his bed.

"See George, his hands are above the blankets. Told you he wouldn't be doing anything indecent."

"Right you are Fred. Never would have believed it anyway, our Sirius is far too innocent!"

Sirius had figured that maybe he wasn't seeing double, but two identical people.

"Who the hell are you two and why are you in my room?" He asked, not very politely.

"Ooh, someone's not a morning person."

"Never really was if you ask me, bit of a nutter in the mornings."

"Well are you going to tell me or do I have to guess?" Sirius cut in, getting a bit confused with the two red-heads finishing each other's sentences.

"I'm Fred."

"Hang on, I thought I was Fred. Mum called me that just this morning."

"Maybe you're right, maybe I'm George."

"Actually I think I'm George. I'm pretty sure you're Fred. That is unless we've teletransported somehow during the night and ended up in each other's bodies."

"Oh, no fair! I want my body back. Yours is so lanky and ginger!"

"Speak for yourself, I have to put up with looking at your ugly mug in the mirror all day long. Not the best Christmas present."

"Okay," Sirius butted in, "So one of you is Fred and one is George yeah?"

The twins both made thoughtful faces.

"Yes." The answered together.

"And judging by your hair I'm guessing you're another of Molly and Arthur's kids?"

"Molly and Arthur?" George asked Fred.

"I think he means mum and dad."

"Oh right! Yeah that's right, we are the children of Molly and Arthur, brothers to Ginny, Ron, Charlie and Bill."

"Don't forget Percy the ponce, we're related to him too."

"Unfortunately. Anyway, you've got to come downstairs now Blackie."

"But it's only seven." Sirius answered. Christmas in the Black household was never that exciting. It was force of habit that he stayed in his room as long as possible on the festive holiday.

"But its Christmas and Ron's usually up at the crack of dawn; ergo we're all up at the crack of dawn."

"We let you sleep in; we've done you a favour."

"If that's a favour, remind me never to ask you two for one." Sirius said, pulling back the covers.

"Ooh, look at that! He made a funny."

"Maybe he does have a sense of humour after all George. Come on Blackie, no need to get dressed, we're all in our jim-jams."

* * *

Sirius descended the stairs rather awkwardly as he pulled on a t-shirt. Despite what George had said, he thought it wouldn't be the best idea to enter a room full of people wearing nothing but flannel pyjama pants. Unless of course someone had wished for a shirtless Sirius for Christmas, then it may be appropriate. Or not. The lounge room was now decked out in homemade Christmas decorations and a large tree, underneath which lay a pile of presents. There was a chorus of 'Merry Christmas' as he entered, and one rogue exclamation of 'about time'. He took a seat next to Ella. 

"Merry Christmas." She said, looking rather tired and pathetic with the large lump still on her head. He couldn't help but smile broadly when he replied.

"Merry Christmas to you too. What did you get me?" He asked cheekily.

"Your gift is that you are graced to be in my presence on this festive occasion." She replied rather grandly, mocking Sirius' upper-class English accent.

"What, so you're saying I get no presents just your presence?"

"Pretty much."

"Wow, I must have been bad this year." He said with a serious face. Ella just rolled her eyes at him. Sirius noticed that Ella was the only one wearing proper clothes, although it appeared the tracksuit pants and t-shirt she had on were her makeshift pyjamas. Sirius thought to offer her a pair of his pyjamas later on, but then had a mental image of her wearing his clothes. Then he had a mental picture of her wearing nothing but one of his shirts. Maybe he wouldn't offer her anything. Best not to be tempted.

They watched as everyone hurriedly handed out presents and unwrapped anything with their name on it. No presents had come Sirius and Ella's way, and nor did they expect any to. No one had known they were here and they didn't expect strangers to go out of their way to buy them something. They watched in silence. After many 'thank yous' and some grunts of disapproval from the presents they received, Molly and Remus brought two large parcels over to where Sirius and Ella were sitting.

"I know you weren't expecting anything my dears, but we couldn't let you go without presents on Christmas. It's nothing too special but we wanted you both to know we were thinking of you." Molly said with a kind smile.

"Thank you so much Mrs. Weasley. You really didn't have to." Ella said as the green parcel was handed to her.

"Call me Molly, dear."

"Well thank you very much Molly dear." Sirius replied, a smirk on his face. Molly simply smiled and shook her head. Their presents were only slightly different. Molly had clearly been busy knitting as Ella received a beautiful hat and scarf combination while Sirius was presented with a navy blue sweater.

"We tried to tell her black was more your colour but she wouldn't listen." Ron stated.

"But the blue will bring out his eyes so beautifully." Molly replied. Ron made a disgusted face at his mum. Sirius decided to test this theory by putting the sweater on. Ella tilted her head as she looked at him.

"You're right Molly, it does bring out his eyes." She said. Sirius looked toward Hermione and Ginny for confirmation. They both nodded.

"See Ron, we're at a consensus, this colour brings out my eyes. Thank you Molly."

"You are most welcome."

The rest of their present existed of Honeduke's sweets and some joke products curtesy of Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes. As Sirius was poring over how great the joke products were, Remus handed him a folded piece of parchment. His eyes seemed to light up more with this than any other present. Why, Ella couldn't understand, unless Sirius had a parchment fetish she didn't know about. Considering she didn't know that much about him it could well be true.

"It still works?" Sirius asked Remus.

"It still works." Remus answered.

"And it's been put to good use?" Remus looked toward Fred and George, then to Harry. Sirius smile widened.

"Brilliant." He said. Ella was still confused.

"It's brilliant that a blank piece of parchment still works? How can parchment not work? You get you're quill and write on it, it's just that simple."

"Oh, it's not just any piece of paper," Harry pitched in.

"It's a prankster's lifeline." Added Fred.

"I still don't understand."

"Do you have your wand?" Sirius asked her. Ella pulled it out of her pocket and held it up. Sirius held out the parchment.

"Okay, all you have to do is tap your wand on the paper, and say 'I solemnly swear I am up to no good'." Ella looked at him pityingly.

"You really think I'm that stupid? It's probably one of Fred and George's inventions, who knows what you're going to do to me."

"I promise you, it's not a joke. Here, look." Sirius said the incantation and tapped the parchment with his wand. Lines began to bleed over the parchment and form what looked like a grid. Ella looked closer and saw moving dots. One was labelled 'Colin Creevy' and was in a room which appeared to have the layout of a dining room. A rather large dining room.

"Oh my goodness! This is Hogwarts!" She exclaimed. "Is this the map you were talking about?"

"The very same. We started making it a few years ago. It's got everything on it, even secret passageways."

"Hang on, you made this?" Ella asked Sirius in awe.

"Yeah," he answered proudly, then at the look on Remus' face he continued. "Well, we all did. Me, Remus, James and Peter."

"That's amazing. I knew you were smart but I didn't think you'd come up with something like this." Ella praised. Sirius couldn't help but feel extremely proud at Ella's comments. It also meant she leant in close to him to get a good look at the map, which he didn't mind in the slightest.

* * *

"MISTLETOE!" Fred and George yelled. 

"WHAT?" Sirius yelled back.

"Mistletoe." Fred repeated.

"You're standing right under it." Added George. Sirius looked up.

"So I am." He stated.

"You both are. You're gonna have to kiss her now," said Fred. Sirius had been smiling all morning, but now his grin was as wide as it could go. He couldn't have even planned this better if he had tried. Everyone had turned to look. George made a wolf whistle.

"Go on Sirius, its tradition. You have to." Harry egged on. Sirius sighed dramatically. He leaned in.

"Don't I get a say in this?"

"Sorry Hermione, you heard the man. Its tradition, we have to."

Hermione still looked unsure but didn't have time to debate the answer as Sirius had grabbed her around the waist and pulled her to him. It was a chaste kiss but Sirius made it last a couple of seconds for show. Hermione's eyes grew wide and she looked a little uncomfortable. George wolf whistled again. Ron looked slightly murderous.

"Merry Christmas Hermione." Sirius said afterwards, and then made sure to glance in Ella's direction to gauge her response. He berated himself for thinking it but he wanted to find any sign that Ella was jealous. Unfortunately for him, Ella seemed nonchalant about the whole thing. Even worse, she was talking quietly with Ron.

"Yeah, Merry Christmas Sirius." Hermione replied, eyeing him warily. She went to sit next to Ginny while Sirius was bombarded by the twins.

"Lucky bitch." Ginny said as Hermione sat down. Hermione just laughed and shook her head.

* * *

After getting no apparent reaction from Ella during the mistletoe incident, Sirius decided to dismiss the fact that he was annoyed at her not being jealous. He was sure it didn't mean anything. He missed Miranda terribly. He just wanted to be wanted. However, his subconscious had decided he would not forget about it. During Christmas dinner, he sat next to Ella without even thinking about it. He offered to pass her food that was out of her reach. He would make sure to tap her on the shoulder or nudge her or use some form of physical contact if he wanted to get her attention. All the while, Sirius was oblivious to his actions. Another thing unbeknownst to him was that Ella _had_ reacted to the mistletoe incident although her face never betrayed what niggled at her inside. What had niggled at her you ask? A sense of rejection. The other night Sirius had said he would have kissed her had he not had a girlfriend. She was flattered. What she couldn't understand was that, even though he was drunk, he didn't kiss her and yet he was so willing to kiss Hermione under the mistletoe when he was stone cold sober. She felt that maybe she just wasn't good enough. She got over this feeling rather quickly when she had seen Ron's face though. Clearly the guy was besotted with Hermione and it was Sirius who was pressed up against her rather than him. Ella couldn't help but have a quick reassuring word to the guy. 

Other than Sirius' unconscious need for physical contact with Ella, Christmas dinner was uneventful, apart from the time Fred and George decided to celebrate getting to dessert by setting off a bunch of green and red fireworks in the kitchen. When they finally died down, to Sirius' horror, there was a smell of singed hair.

Afterwards, Ella and Sirius circulated the mulled mead they found the other night as a small Christmas gesture. It was a welcome gift when Molly made them listen to Celestina Warbeck on the Wizarding Wireless network as clearly, eggnog was not strong enough to handle such torture. They were all sitting in the lounge room, unable to move for being so full and slowly becoming tipsy. Sirius yawned and decided to stretch out on the couch. The only problem was that Ella was sitting on said couch, so in order for Sirius to lie down, she had the privilege of being a foot rest.

"Do you mind?" She asked, not really caring.

"Not at all. Hey can you pass me my drink?"

"Would you like me to get you a straw so you don't choke while trying to drink laying down?" She asked, handing him his mead.

"Actually, that's not a bad idea." He replied and waved his wand. He summoned up a large, blue curly straw and put it in his glass.

"Blue huh?" Ella stated.

"Brings out my eyes, what can I say?" Sirius said with a grin. At this moment, Ella caught a part of Hermione and Ron's conversation.

"So what did _Lavender _get you for Christmas?" Hermione asked Ron. Harry suddenly looked all knowing and smirked.

"Funny you should ask Hermione-"

"Shut it Harry." Ron warned.

"Who's Lavender?" Ella asked.

"No-one." Ron said shortly. It was Hermione's turn to smirk.

"I wouldn't call your girlfriend 'no one' Ronald. How do you think Lavender would respond to that?"

"I wouldn't really call her his girlfriend, more like the girl he gets stuck to at the dining table." Ginny offered.

"Wait, Ron has a girlfriend?" Ella asked bewildered.

"Geez, don't sound so surprised next time. Yes I have a girlfriend." Ron said indignantly.

"Oh no, I didn't mean it like that I just thought-" Ella cut herself off before she said something she regretted. She knew Ron fancied Hermione, so couldn't understand why he would be going out with someone else. Boys really were stupid. Everyone was looking at her expectantly, but she was saved from embarrassment by the entrance of Kingsley Shacklebolt.

"Afternoon all. Merry Christmas." He said happily. The room erupted with 'Merry Christmas'.

"Finally got away from the Ministry?" Arthur asked. He was rather happy and his nose had turned a little red.

"Yes, we thought the Minister was going to keep us much longer but apparently he let us go out of his 'own great kindness'."

As Arthur and Kingsley chatted casually about work at the Ministry, Ella came up with a plan. After kindly refusing Molly's offer to stay for tea, Kingsley bid everyone farewell and made to leave. Ella suddenly jumped off the couch which made Sirius spill his drink. Kingsley had made it to the hallway.

"Mr. Shacklebolt?" She asked urgently.

"I wasn't expecting a farewell committee. What is it Ella?" He asked kindly.

"You work at the Ministry?"

"Yes I do, under the Minister himself."

"I was wondering if you could do me a favour?" Kingsley nodded for her to continue. "It sounds really stupid but I was wondering if you could look up in the department of Births, Deaths and Marriages to find out anything about me?"

What she really meant to say was 'can you find out how and/or when I died?' but it seemed so much more casual the way she had said it. Kingsley looked sad for a moment out of pity for Ella.

"I'll see what I can do for you. I'll be back in a couple of days or so, I shall report to you what I find, how's that?" He asked.

"That would be wonderful. Thank you so much."

"You're welcome. Merry Christmas."

"Merry Christmas to you too Mr. Shacklebolt."

Ella felt even happier after having this chat with Kingsley. The rest of Christmas she spent singing carols and getting to know everyone better. Her good mood lasted to the next day, only being dampened slightly by Sirius being nowhere to be seen until tea time. She had wanted to tell him in private about what she would find out.

* * *

While everyone had taken their seats at the dinner table without much hassle, Ella couldn't help but notice that Sirius had not greeted anyone or in fact said anything since entering the room. Even stranger was the fact that he had not touched any of his dinner. If Sirius Black was not eating food cooked by Molly Weasley, something was definitely wrong. Occasionally, Remus would look in Sirius' direction with a mixture of sadness and pity on his face and Ella put two and two together, coming to the conclusion that Sirius had found the papers which reported his supposed crime. No doubt that was what he and Remus were talking, or rather yelling, about when Ella had passed the door of the drawing room. Harry's voice brought Ella out of her reverie. 

"…and then there was the time he made me fall out of my seat in the Gryffindor common room. Thank god I'd seen a head in the fireplace before or I might've thought I was going insane." Harry finished and the others laughed.

"Look, will you just stop!" Everyone's smiles vanished as Sirius jumped up, knocking over his goblet of water and spilling food over the tablecloth. Harry stared at Sirius, confused, while Ron held a forkful of mashed potatoes half way to his mouth.

"You don't have to reminisce about all that shit okay? You don't have to try and be nice to me!"

"What are you talking about Sirius?" Harry questioned, still confused about the sudden change in atmosphere.

"About you! About your parents! About what I did, or will do or whatever! You don't have to act all chummy with me, I don't deserve it alright!" Harry looked stunned as he tried to piece together what his godfather was saying.

"Sirius, what are you talking about? You didn't do anything wrong! I know you felt guilty about not being able to help, being stuck in this house and all but there was no need to! You did plenty-" Sirius cut him off.

"Look, I don't want to hear it! I know the type of person I turned out to be so stop trying to be so fucking nice about it alright!" It was during this comment Ella decided to intervene. She spoke softly, but firmly.

"Sirius, calm down a bit. You're not thinking straight." Sirius gave her a reproachful look then without another word, slapped his napkin onto the table and stormed out of the room, giving the door a typical enraged slam as he exited. Everyone looked around the table in an uncomfortable silence. Ella quietly stood up, pointed her wand at the mess Sirius had made and in no time, the goblet was upright and any mess cleared up.

"Excuse me for a moment please." Ella said calmly, and then casually left the room in search of the enigma that was Sirius Black.

Once out of the kitchen, Ella closed the door quietly and turned around. As it turned out, she didn't have to look very far to find Sirius. He was pacing back and forth in front of the staircase, right outside the kitchen door. She watched him for a moment as he stopped and glared at the house-elf heads and his mother's curtain covered portrait, then gave the wall an almighty kick. Despite how pathetic the situation was, Ella had to admire Sirius for showing no signs of pain after giving the wall such a forceful kick. However, this was short lived as she remembered why she came looking for him in the first place. She addressed him with a casual tone.

"Sirius, what on earth just happened? What's gotten in to you?" She doubted Sirius would reply in a civil manner. She was right.

"What's gotten in to me? Are you kidding? You kept this from me the whole time! You knew what kind of person I am – I was – I became!" Clearly Sirius was having trouble keeping up with understanding their situation in regards to the timeline.

"Sirius, you can't possibly believe what you read in that Daily Prophet surely!" Ella replied, somewhat disappointed in Sirius' lack of reasoning.

"How could I not believe it? You read it! You saw what it said, saw the picture of me laughing like some crazed psycho lunatic! I'm the reason Harry has no parents! I sold them out to that You Know Who bastard! I killed my best friend and his wife! Don't you get that? And Peter and all those muggles, how could you possibly not believe what was written when it all makes so much sense!" Ella decided to change tactics. Sirius was clearly not going to be rational.

"Oh yes Sirius, it all makes so much sense!" she began to yell, "These people are clearly being nice to you because that's just the kind of people they are! It doesn't matter if you're a murderer, come on in and enjoy a cup of tea and a biscuit while you chat to the son of your, apparently now ex best friend, that you so obviously killed along with his wife and thirteen muggles! Yeah, I see what you mean, that makes perfect sense!"

"Well what's not to believe Ella? This is the house I grew up in! Look around, it doesn't exactly look like a peaceful, homey place now does it? My whole family was into the dark arts, what's to say they didn't finally get to me, make me join up with death eaters and do everything that was reported hey?" Ella gave him a look which clearly summed up the pity she felt for Sirius being so, well, stupid.

"Sirius with you get over yourself and listen to me!" Sirius looked like he was about to cut her off but she continued even louder. "YOU DID NOT KILL JAMES AND LILY! Like you would ever do that to them! I've seen the way you get along with James at school, he's like your surrogate brother! Sometimes it's nauseating! You would never sell out your best friend and his family, surely Remus told you that you never did any of those things!" This was still not enough for Sirius.

"I WENT TO AZKABAN ELLA! Why would they send me there if I hadn't done it?" At this shouted comment, the curtain covering the portrait of Sirius' mother flew open but before her anti-muggle insults could fill the room, Ella forcefully pointed her wand at portrait and the curtain closed again. Ella directed her next comment at the portrait.

"Oh don't you start your yelling you stupid old hag! Dealing with your son is bad enough!" She then turned back to Sirius.

"And the reason you went to Azkaban was because Peter planned it all out that way you dolt! It was Peter, not you! You were innocent!" Sirius made a move to interrupt again, but Ella was having none of it. "If you had killed Harry's parents, why the hell would _your _house be the headquarters of the order of the phoenix? If you had done all those things, why would Remus have been so happy to see you? Why do you think when Harry first saw you he hugged you as though his life depended on it?" Sirius started to look slightly shameful. _So he ought to_, thought Ella. She began a little softer.

"I really think you should stop being so self absorbed and deal with the situation at hand. These people are your family, and not only that, but they just lost you not that long ago. You coming here is like having the Sirius they knew back again. Well technically you are the same Sirius and all but you know what I mean. This is a once in a lifetime chance for them to see you again and forget some of the hurt at having lost you in the first place. Your whole life you wanted a family who loved you right?" Sirius just looked at the ground.

"I'll take that as a 'yes'. Well here's your chance, here they are. When we get back to our time, yes I do mean when, I'm pretty sure we won't remember any of this so what have you got to lose by letting your family spend more time with you? If you won't see that you're actually a good person and never did anything to hurt your friends, please just do this for them. They never got the chance to say goodbye last time, so let them have this one thing."

While Sirius' eyes were still cast downwards, he started to blink more than was necessary. Ella assumed he was blinking back tears. But then again, Sirius did have many feminine characteristics; eye fluttering may just be another one to add to the list.

"Do this for them. Please." There was a long pause and Sirius gave the slightest of nods. Ella smiled inwardly. Clearly yelling and laying on a guilt trip did wonders to persuade the great Sirius Black. Who knew she had it in her? Sirius took one deep breath and finally looked toward Ella. She nodded her head in the direction of the kitchen door, her eyebrows raised. Sirius nodded in reply. Ella smiled at him and re-entered the kitchen.

Back in the kitchen, everyone quickly scuttled back to their seats and tucked in to their meals as though they had been eating the whole time. Despite the strangeness and humour of the situation (clearly they had listened to every word), Ella casually went to sit back at her place on the table.

"Sorry about that everyone." She said while her mouth twitched ever so slightly at the corners.

"Oh, no, don't worry about it! We were just eating and discussing…ah…Quidditch." Hermione replied, not all that convincingly. Ella decided to play along with the lie.

"Ooh I love Quidditch, tell me, how are the Cannons doing nowadays? Please tell me they are finally one of the top teams!" At this comment, Ron went into a long spiel about the new line up of the Cannons and questioning Ella about who was playing back in her time. During this conversation, Sirius came back into the room and took his place across the table from Ella.

"Sirius mate, you're back. Tell me, who do you go for in Quidditch?" Ron asked rather eagerly. Hermione was quick to give Ron a death glare, possibly thinking that Sirius might want to be left alone, while there was a pause in all conversation as everyone awaited the response from Sirius.

"Tornados Ron, all the way! I'm assuming they've kept their top class reputation?"

Ella caught Remus' eye and he gave her a slight nod of appreciation at her ability to bring Sirius around. Ella smiled in a smug way and had a sip of her drink as she heard Remus start to mock Sirius.

"When we were at school Sirius, when were the Tornados _ever_ a good team?"

"Ill have you know that the Tornados had a great team of _players_, it's just that they weren't really _team_ players. They didn't seem to realise there is no 'I' in team, they only realised that if you rearrange the letters, it spells meat, which is what they did to each other"

As the conversation continued, Sirius appeared to forget all about why he had been acting so irrationally while Ella was relieved that the whole fiasco was over and done with. And she got a chance to catch up with the latest Quidditch news. While she was sure they wouldn't be able to remember anything once they got back to their time, Ella still didn't want to miss the opportunity to know about which Quidditch teams came good in which years. If there was a chance she could remember this when she got back, she'd be able to make a tonne of money from betting on the sport.

* * *

**A/N: **Yep, that was a LONG chapter, I didn't intend it to be that long, believe me! The very first thing i wrote for this whole story was Ella and Sirius' argument so its great to finally post it. Ella has the power! I have updated my profile page with a bit of info about this story so if your interested check it out. 

THANK YOU THANK YOU to my reviewers again (HpC0ldplay, i hope you like the fred and george bits, i had fun writing them!!!) I would really love to know what you all think (are any guys reading this? I'm just under the impression that girls like the romance fics...) so please review if you have an opinion...or if you're just bored and would love to make one particular author happy!!!


	8. Reminiscent of time gone by

**Disclaimer: **If I was older, blonde and living in Scotland, I would be closer to being the one who came up with Harry Potter. But I'm not, as you know.

* * *

**Chapter Eight: Reminiscent of time gone by**

The lounge room was rather full that afternoon. Remus sat on one side of the sofa, the paper resting on his knees as he read, while Harry sat on the other side watching Ron and Sirius on the floor who were halfway through a marathon chess match. Hermione also watched, sitting on the floor leaning against the armchair that Ginny occupied. Finally, Ella had positioned herself in the other armchair, sitting with her legs dangling over the side while she flipped through a Quidditch magazine. There was a groan from the floor as Ron claimed one of Sirius' bishops.

"Dammit, I didn't think you'd see that!" Sirius stated.

"Too bad, I did. You're problem is that you take too many risks." Ron chipped in rather smugly.

"Well someone has to take a risk, you certainly won't."

"Maybe that's why I win."

"Well if I didn't take risks, you wouldn't win at all, it'd just end up stalemate. I'm doing you a favour really." Sirius retorted quickly. Everyone in the room chuckled.

"I think Ron's right Sirius, you always did take quite a few risks." Remus said, looking up from his paper.

"Well it does pay off a lot of the time."

"Yeah but not _all_ the time. It was all about chance with you." Remus replied. There was a slight pause as Sirius looked at Remus with narrowed eyes.

"How come I get the feeling we aren't just talking about chess here?" He stated. All he got in return was an unreadable smile from Remus. Sirius returned to the game, calculating his next move.

"Anyway, Ron hasn't won-" he looked up and saw Ron raise one eyebrow, "well you haven't won just yet anyway."

This situation was rather strange for Harry. For the first time since his godfather had come back (or should that be come forward?), Harry finally got the chance to sit back and analyse the situation. It was great to have Sirius back, albeit in a different form, a younger version, but there was something unsettling Harry couldn't quite put his finger on. Firstly, the way people spoke about Sirius was as though he was still dead. Remus had done this only a moment ago: _"you always did take quite a few risks… It was all about chance with you."_ All comments about Sirius were in the past tense, as though he wasn't really there. Harry thought about all the other conversations with Sirius since he arrived. Every story, every memory was reminiscent of his time with the Sirius he knew. The strangest thing was that the events everyone continually recounted were yet to happen for the young Sirius, as it was inevitable he and Ella go back to their time and then live the rest of their lives which, Harry thought, seemed already planned for them. Thinking of Sirius as two different people, young and old, was also a strange concept as the Sirius Harry knew was very similar to the one now sitting in the lounge room. This was a sad thought as Harry realised Sirius really never had the chance to grow up due to being imprisoned at such a young age. The one drastic difference between the two versions of his godfather lay in the eyes. The Sirius sitting before Harry lacked the pained and haunted look that plagued his older self. His eyes were full of humour, mischief and at this very moment, a look of fierce concentration and determination which had everything to do with the chess match. Ron was a tough one to beat. Harry came to the conclusion that the thing he worried about most was that Sirius would indeed have to go back to his time. He would have to say goodbye to him, lose him all over again. Determined not to waste any time he had to get to know the younger version of his godfather, Harry decided to ask about Hogwarts in the self proclaimed Marauder's time. This would at least give him the chance to stop thinking such morbid thoughts.

"Sirius, what was it like at Hogwarts during your time?" Harry asked. Sirius looked up from the chess board with a huge smirk on his face.

"What I was like or what the school was like?" Sirius asked.

"Both I suppose."

"I'm sure Moony here can back me up in saying that I am, was, a model student. I was always spending spare time in the library, studying and being on my all round best behaviour!" Ella snorted, closing the magazine she was reading then throwing it across the room where Ginny caught it lazily and began to read.

"My goodness, time travel has addled your mind. May I remind you that you were in detention before you ended up here?" Ella pointed out. Sirius was quick to reply.

"You can't talk; you were in the same detention as me! And I only got one, you were supposed to do three. Or do refuse to acknowledge that fact?"

"I was in detention because I'm pretty much the clumsiest person in the world and I was in the wrong place at the wrong time. You were in detention because you swapped Slughorn's water with the babbling potion you had just made! It took him 10 minutes to even tell you that you had detention! Although I must say, he seemed pretty impressed with the prank, he clearly likes you. I can't believe he gave you a week's worth of detention then said you only had to do one! I can just imagine him 'Oho! What a great prank, Sirius Black shall not waste time in detention for such cunning display! That deserves 50 points for Gryffindor!" She imitated, rather poorly.

"Okay, first, you're a nice girl, snide remarks aren't becoming of you. And we never finished our detention because we came here, so technically we've been in detention for weeks now…and you're forgetting, I got stuck in detention with you. Still think I got away with it?" Sirius replied with jest.

Ella rolled her eyes but laughed all the same.

"You seriously think that being stuck with each other is worse for you than it is for me? You really don't use your brain much do you?"

"Not when I can help it, no."

Meanwhile, Remus decided to answer Harry's question more seriously. "Hogwarts was no different when we were there to now actually. The marauder's map is proof of that, at least the castle hasn't changed that much anyway. Some of the teachers have changed, and clearly the students are different, a lot less pranking since Sirius and James left I'm sure."

"Don't say that to Fred and George, they'll think that's the biggest insult." Ginny pitched in.

"We could have used some of Fred and George's inventions at school I reckon. Think of how much easier it would have been to skive off class, or create mayhem." Sirius thought for a moment then a dreamy smile came to his face. "Or meet up with Miranda."

Ella rolled her eyes once again. It was becoming quite a habit with her lately. Remus had completely discarded his paper by this point and was getting right into the conversation.

"Oh I forgot about Miranda!" Remus said. His tone was not quite readable.

"And what's that supposed to mean Moony?" Sirius said suspiciously.

"Who's Miranda?" Harry asked. Ella and Remus looked as though they were going to answer but Sirius beat them to it.

"Miranda is Miranda Jameson, my girlfriend. My girlfriend who, if Remus is right and I am in a coma back in my time, is worried out of her mind right now. Probably crying, tears running down her pretty porcelain face, wondering what will become of her Sirius." Sirius looked off into the distance, as though he could see Miranda right there.

"I'm sure what Sirius meant to say was that Miranda is a Hufflepuff girl in our year who has been going out with Sirius for, what, almost a year now?" Sirius nodded. "And as you can tell by his sickening tone and graphic imagery, they are quite the couple. Their baby talk was enough to put you off trifle for a month."

"Oh come on, we weren't that bad! Can I help it if the girl is fabulous and deserves my compliments every now and then?" Sirius retorted.

"Come on Padfoot, you were pretty painful, on a par with James really. If you weren't with her, you were talking about her. She wasn't that bad of a person but I had to resent her after a while. I did not need to know what her favourite colour was or what happened down at the lake after lunch." Ron took this moment to high five Sirius to which Hermione shook her head at, despite the fact she was also smiling.

"I couldn't help it if she couldn't keep her hands off me now could I Moony? And she did have very nice hands, nails are always painted a different colour each day and-"

"Okay, we heard enough back then, please don't make me remember the reasons why you could be so annoying at school." Remus stated but Sirius took no notice.

Ella suddenly remembered a conversation she had with Sirius about Lily and James during their detention. It appeared Sirius could be just as annoying as his best friend when it came to talking about their one and only's. Despite how annoying it would be to constantly hear about the one person over and over, Ella thought it was nice that Sirius and James displayed such outward affection for their girls. It was a rare find in guys these days. She almost felt sorry for Sirius that the one he was caught up on was someone who was likely to break his heart as easily as a brandy snap. Ella came out of her reverie and realised Sirius was still waffling on about his lady love.

"Actually, I found what looked like my old photo album the other day, there should be a picture in there. Hang on, I'll go up and get it."

"Sirius, really there's no need to-" But Remus' remark was cut short as Sirius shot out of the room in search of his photo album. Ella quickly sat upright in the chair and addressed everyone.

"Okay, here's the deal with Miranda. Clearly Sirius is enamoured with her but my guess is that they didn't last that long after the coma thing, am I right Remus?" Ella looked toward Remus who simply smiled as if saying 'I'm not telling.' Ella waved her hand dismissively at him and continued.

"Well, Miranda was my best friend during the first few years of Hogwarts. We met on the train and clearly we didn't know anyone else so sat in the compartment together and got along like a house on fire. I was sorted to Gryffindor and she was sorted to Hufflepuff but we stayed good friends as we had a few classes together and hung out at lunchtimes and after school and all that jazz. Anyway, the thing about Miranda is that she's quite…clingy and can get a bit jealous. It was always okay for her to go off with anyone but if you didn't put all your focus on her, you had committed the biggest crime. Don't get me wrong, she's really nice and we had great times but unless you invest all your energy into the friendship, she gets rather, well, pissed off. Let's just say that because I was her 'best friend' I wasn't supposed to get along so well with other people so she 'demoted' me in third year. So after that she stopped hanging around me, but she'd also gone around and told my other friends that I was talking about them all behind their backs and whatnot, so for about a month I sat by myself until one of my roommates, Ebony, decided not to believe what Miranda had said. Third year is a bitchy year. " She paused for a moment. "I think I'm now under the 'acquaintance' section in Miranda's address book."

"So you think that because back in your time Sirius is in a coma and not paying attention to her, she'll have moved on?" Hermione asked. Ella looked to Remus for a clue but he wasn't giving her anything.

"My guess is that she'll stick around for a couple of days, completely devoted to him coz, if you didn't know, Sirius is quite a sought after bloke at school, but she'll definitely go wandering after then. Who knows though, she could have-" Ella quickly cut her story short as Sirius re-entered the room.

"Right, I found it, who wants to come see?" Sirius placed a fat leather bound photo album on the coffee table and opened up to the first page. Everyone gathered around to get a good view.

The first photo was taken in the Gryffindor common room. It showed two young boys, one with glasses but both with a mop of black hair, brandishing their wands at one another, pretending to duel. Sparks shot out of their wands every now and then as they played.

"Oh my goodness, look how small you are! That's you and James I'm guessing?" Hermione asked.

"Yeah, that was first year, clearly didn't know much magic by that stage. We were excited enough that sparks were coming out of our wands. We soon got good at it though." At this comment Remus smiled and rolled his eyes. Eye rolling seemed to be becoming contagious. Sirius flicked through the next few pages which showed various pictures throughout his first couple of years at Hogwarts. Most of the pictures were of Sirius and his mates mucking around and making funny faces. By the time Sirius flicked to photos from fourth year, the nature of the photos began to change. Their poses were much more deliberate; smug, arrogant, but an air of humour still lingered.

"You guys are such posers! Look at that one." Ella pointed to a picture of all four of the Marauders with their arms around each other, looking rather smug and making eyes at the camera.

"Oh I remember that. We set up the camera on the branch so we could get that angle, then did a spell to put a timer on it. We thought we were so good. It's a bit embarrassing to see these photos now. I didn't think you'd kept them Sirius. Or rather hoped you hadn't kept them."

"I think it's great! Never knew you were so photogenic Remus! How often do you get so see one of our professors making a tool out of himself? Ooh look at that one, nice!" Ron mocked Remus who simply shook his head.

"Okay, enough of the early days, let's get to the recent ones so you can see Miranda." Sirius said. He flicked to the pages further toward the back of the photo album. The first photo of their seventh year was of all four of the Marauders in a compartment of the Hogwarts express. The second photo and indeed many after that consisted of Sirius with a tall, blonde girl with fine features and quite arched eyebrows, giving her a kind but surprised look.

"There you are, that's Miranda. What do you reckon?"

"Whoa, you picked a good one there Sirius!" Ron stated. Hermione rolled her eyes at him. It really was a contagious habit, Ella felt rather guilty for spreading it around.

"She seems really tall." Harry stated. Sirius furrowed his eyebrows.

"Yeah, I suppose she is tall. Why seem so surprised?"

"I don't know, for some reason I just thought she'd be shorter."

"She does wear rather high shoes though. She's a actually a bit shorter than me." Ella said and Harry nodded.

Many of the other photos were quite exciting for Sirius and Ella to see as they were taken after they returned. There were the usual photos of the marauders doing their silly poses but there were also plenty of photos with other people who went to Hogwarts as well. Harry smiled as he noticed increasingly more photos of his mum and dad. It made sense as James and Lily had gotten together during their seventh year, or so Harry was told anyway. Ella let out a quick gasp and pointed at two of the photos. She had forgotten to even look for herself so was shocked when there was actually evidence of her going to Hogwarts with Sirius and his friends. The photo showed all the seventh years that were in Gryffindor, all looking a little too cheerful with drinks in their hands which Ella was sure contained some form of alcoholic beverage. In the picture she was seated on the sofa between Lily and Remus. Sirius was sitting with his arm resting on the back of the sofa behind Remus' head, his hand constantly tapping Ella on the shoulder. She would then turn around to hit him or yell at him but the effect was lost as she would burst out laughing.

"This is really weird to see! It hasn't happened for us but here we are. Eugh, it's like looking into a crystal ball or something. I have a feeling I'm a bit tipsy there. I always get the giggles when I drink." Ella stated.

"I know what you mean." Sirius said in reply. Ella furrowed her brow.

"Was I that giggly the other night?" She asked.

"No, I meant about seeing this picture. It's the future for us but it's really the past." He paused a moment then held his head as though the paradox was too much effort to think about.

"Ouch, that's making my head hurt, too much thinking for one day I reckon." He closed the photo album while they all talked about the pictures they had seen.

"Well that was exciting, who wants to come outside for a bit?" Ella asked.

"But it's raining." Ginny replied.

"Exactly! And what better conditions to play quidditch in than in the rain?" Ginny paused for a moment.

"Good point, who else is coming?" Nobody seemed too keen. "Okay then Ella, it's just you and me, lets go." With that, Ella and Ginny exited the lounge room and left the others to their indoor activities.

"I think I'm going to go for a kip. Rainy days make me sleepy." Hermione said. The rest nodded and she left to go to the comfort of her bed. Ron pointed back to the unfinished game of chess.

"You want to keep playing, or are you scared to lose again?" He asked Sirius.

"Oh, I'm not scared, coz you're going down Weasley. Just let me put this away." Sirius said, gesturing to the photo album. He picked it up and turned to leave the room. As he left, a battered photo fell from the back of the album which Sirius did not see. Harry picked it up and looked at the crumpled picture. At first he thought it was a picture of Sirius and Miranda again but he looked and realised it was a different girl this time. His eyebrows rose. In this photo, Sirius was looking down at a girl with wavy brown hair. Sirius had a huge smile on his face, as did the girl, but there was something forlorn about her expression.

"Hey Remus, look at this." Harry said, showing the photo to Remus as Ron came round to see also.

"Sweet Merlin, Sirius used to carry this picture around with him everywhere when he left school. He always took it when he had Order business to attend to." Remus said. Harry and Ron looked at each other.

"But that's-"

"Yes it is. Don't say anything, I think it's best he doesn't know. I took that photo actually. They weren't really public about their…well whatever they had. Only some of us knew about it. This was the last day of school, just before going to Hogsmeade station. They had no idea I was there." Remus recalled. The photo Sirius had just wrapped his arms around the girl's waist and she linked her arms about his neck while he buried his head in her hair, possibly whispering sweet nothings into her ear. They heard the door of the lounge room open, alerting them to Sirius' return. Remus quickly stuffed the photo into the gap between the cushions of the sofa.

"You ready to meet your doom now Weasley?"

* * *

After spending almost two hours in the rain practising Quidditch with pinecones, Ginny and Ella decided it was time to go back inside. They made their way down to the ground and dismounted their brooms. Both looked at each other's soggy, muddy appearance and laughed. As they entered number 12 Grimmauld Place, they stood in the doorway slowly creating a pool of mud and water where they stood. Not wanting to track mud all through the house, Ella cried out to Sirius.

"SIRIUS!" A reply came through the closed door of the lounge room.

"WHAT?"

"CAN YOU GET ME AND GINNY SOME TOWELS?"

"WHAT DO YOU WANT TOWELS FOR?" Ella looked at Ginny with disbelief. What else would they need towels for?

"BECAUSE I COLLECT TOWELS AND TOUGHT YOU WOULDN'T MIND IF I TOOK SOME OF YOURS. ME AND GINNY ARE SOAKED AND NEED TO GET DRY, WHAT DO YOU THINK WE NEED THEM FOR?"

At this comment Sirius made his way out of the lounge room and greeted Ella and Ginny where they stood. Sirius raised an eyebrow.

"I thought you were smart Ella. Generally you take your clothes off _before _you have a shower. And you wash with soap, not mud." Ella threw him a dirty look.

"Your wit astounds me. So can we please have some towels?" Sirius rolled his eyes and proceeded to the linen cupboard. Really this should be Kreacher's job but since Sirius had come to the future, the house elf had been ordered to stay in his furnace room. Sirius came back with two large bath towels. He handed them to the girls.

"Thank you!" Ginny said, glad to finally have something to wrap around her shivering body.

"Yeah, thanks. Took your time though." Ella stated. Sirius looked at her with disbelief.

"I don't know what your pissed at me for. You know you could have easily _accio'd _the towels to yourself. Or you could have walked to the cupboard and got them." Ella thought about this for a moment. Using a spell would have been the obvious solution. She was still not used to being allowed to use magic outside school, even if she had been 17 for months now.

"Well we didn't want to track mud all through the house." She said defiantly. Sirius maintained his disbelieving look.

"You could easily have used your wand and done a cleaning charm. Are you sure you're a witch?" He asked.

"Well, I'm still getting used to being able to do magic outside school. Oh, shut up." She added when Sirius shook his head. He left the girls and went back into the lounge room. Maybe he could finally finish this game of chess.

Ella turned to Ginny who smiled at her. "You know, I do think it's pretty funny that you forgot you could do magic. You've been 17 for what? Eight months now.?" Ginny asked.

"Oh don't you start Miss_ I Knew All Along You Could Do Magic And Didn't Bother To Tell You." _

"Don't do that again. Being a smart arse doesn't suit you El." Ginny retorted with a smile. She suddenly tilted her head at Ella.

"I never realised how long your hair was." Ella looked at her with surprise.

"Oh, yeah. I like it long. I always wanted to get it cut but never had the guts to do it. My mum always says long hair is more feminine and I should use it to my advantage." Ginny's face lit up with a mischievous smile.

"Well now's your chance isn't it? What have you got to lose? You're in a different time-zone, you're not really allowed to leave the house and you're going to be going back to your 'old' body so to speak." Ella smiled.

"What exactly are you getting at Ginevra Weasley?"

"What I'm saying Ella Powell, is if I bugger it up it won't matter because only we will see it anyway."

"First of all, thank you for not using my full name. Second of all…how good are you with a pair of scissors?"

* * *

Once clean and showered, Ginny and Ella spent the next two hours in the bathroom arguing over the exact length and style of Ella's new haircut. Fringe or no fringe, that was the question.

"I really think you could have like a raggedy sort of fringe. It'd go really well with your face shape." Ginny argued.

"Yeah but my hair's not exactly straight, so every time I wash my hair I'll have to pin it back or straighten it."

"I thought the whole idea was to do something different. What does it matter if you have to straighten it or pin it back?"

"You can hardly say I didn't take a risk! Look at all that hair on the ground! My hair was halfway down my back and now it's above my shoulders." The bathroom floor was covered in long strands of brunette hair. Ginny decided to take a different route with the argument.

"I can't see what you're worried about, I mean, the only person who is going to have to see your hair is Sirius. Unless you actually care what he thinks." She looked at Ella with a sidewards glance. Ella rolled her eyes.

"Ginny, I honestly don't care what Sirius thinks." Ginny was about to open her mouth to finish her argument but Ella cut her off.

"Okay then, do the fringe. But not one straight across, do it to the side." Ginny simply smiled.

"Knew you'd come around. You read my mind."

* * *

Once Ginny was finished, she stood with one hand on her hip, the other with the scissors under her chin, surveying her handiwork. Ella looked in the mirror, then down at the floor. She tried hard to convince herself that it didn't matter, that when she went back to her time her precious hair would be back. She waved her wand and the hair on the floor was suddenly gone. She looked back into the mirror.

"So what do you think?" Ginny asked. Ella continued looking in the mirror, turning her head this way and that, making her hair flick and bounce with her movement.

"I actually really like it. Good job Ginny!" Ginny smiled.

"Told you that you could trust me. Now let's go downstairs and show off your new do."

Down in the lounge room, Ron leant back against the sofa with his hands linked behind his head. It had taken a while but he had finally been able to say 'check mate'. It felt great to get one over Sirius considering the day before he had kissed Hermione. Sirius sighed as he scooped up the broken chess pieces, repacking them into their box.

"What were you saying a few hours ago about meeting my doom Sirius?" Ron asked.

"You met your doom Weasley, it just so happens that doom looks a lot like winning. I can understand your confusion." At this comment there was a loud grunt from the couch. Harry had fallen asleep watching Ron and Sirius playing chess and had let out a large snore.

"Anyway Ron, I'm what, about 20 years older than you? I thought your parent's had raised you well. You should respect your elders."

"Well there are seven of us kids; maybe I just missed that lesson about respecting elders who come back as teenagers."

At this comment, Sirius got himself up from the floor and stretched extensively. He had been sitting on the floor for over two hours now and was cramping up. He arched his back and now he could see the door. As he stretched, the door opened and Ginny came through with the new look Ella. Sirius paused in his backward position, tilting his head to the side while furrowing his brow. Ella and Ginny stood looking at Sirius with the same expressions on their faces.

"I didn't picture you as the yoga type Sirius." Ella finally said. Sirius straightened himself up and turned to the girls.

"I'm not, just started. Thought I should limber up a bit you know? To pass the time while we're here." It seemed Sirius had an answer for everything. "Anyway, where'd your hair go?" Ella smiled and shook her head from side to side.

"Decided on a change, what do you think?"

"You mean Ginny conned you into it." Ron mumbled from the corner. Sirius decided to analyse Ella's hair extensively. He tilted his head to the side, his hand on his chin. Sirius slowly walked toward Ella and began to circle her, studying her hair as he went. The colour hadn't changed but it was much shorter. Every time Sirius circled her, Ella leaned away from him slightly. It was a little unnerving to say the least.

"Well have you decided what you think or do you need another hour?" Ella asked somewhat irritated.

"Hang on, need to go around once more." Instead of walking around her, Sirius stood in front of Ella and spun her in a circle.

"Yeah, it's not too bad. Very modern." Ella should have known that was all she would get from Sirius. Ignoring him, she turned toward Ron who looked a little stunned at being asked his opinion. He was saved by a gasp from the doorway. Hermione had woken from her nap and had joined the rest of the group.

"Oh my goodness! What did you do to all your hair?" She asked. Ella looked crestfallen.

"Don't you like it?"

"No I love it, it suits you! Very modern." Hermione answered. Sirius took this opportunity to run with his argument.

"See I told you! You should know to listen to me. I am quite stylish after all."

"Yeah, for the seventies maybe." Ginny retorted, looking Sirius up and down.

"I'll have you know the seventies look is coming back. Fashion tends to repeat itself you know. I dress from the past which, ironically, is the fashion of the future." This comment earned Sirius a strange stare from Ron who appeared to think it was unmanly to know so much about fashion. Sirius did take pride in his appearance. Harry took this moment to wake from his chess induced slumber.

"What's this about the future?" He asked, wiping sleep out of his eyes and straightening his glasses. He saw Ella standing at the end of the sofa. "Nice hair. Very modern." Sirius simply smiled while Ella rolled her eyes.

"Anyone would think I had an ancient hairstyle or something. It was long, get over it."

"Ooh, someone's got a new attitude to go with her sexy new hairstyle." Sirius teased. Ella looked at him quizzically.

"I was always told long hair was feminine, isn't feminine more sexy?" She asked.

"Long hair is feminine, but it's for nice girls – although I have to say, never underestimate the power of a pony-tail. There's something sassy and outlandish about a girl with shorter hair, makes her seem more outgoing, hence the sexiness. How many models do you see with long hair?" Sirius ranted. Ella shook her head at him.

"Plenty of models have long hair. So what, models with long hair aren't sexy?" She asked.

"No you're missing my point. Think about what products models with long hair sell. It's all underwear catalogues and fashion shows and make up, all aimed at being sold to women. The models with shorter hair or outlandish cuts are the ones doing the sexy poses and raunchy shoots."

Ron tilted his head to the side at this comment, while Harry nodded his head, both suddenly getting what Sirius was talking about. The girls simply stood there with blank looks on their faces.

"That…has to be the most bizarre thing I have ever heard from your mouth Sirius, even after your mind was addled by Azkaban. That reasoning is just weird." Ginny stated.

"First of all Ginny, I'm sure my mind wasn't addled by Azkaban, my mind is a fortress. And second of all, you girls are always trying to figure us guys out, if you can't appreciate a valuable insight into the male psyche then I shall try no more."

"Please, don't." Ella said. Mrs. Weasley took this moment to enter the room to ask for help with cooking dinner. Before the words left her mouth, she spied Ella with her new haircut.

"Oh I do like your new hair dear. Very modern." Ella just smiled, defeated.

"Thank you Mrs. Weasley." She said. Sirius crossed his arms in a manner that clearly said he had won.

* * *

**A/N: **Not an extremely revealing chapter, but there is good information there if you look hard enough... Next chapter Ella gets a visit from Kingsley, Harry and the gang head back to school and Ella and Sirius have all the time in the world to research, mope around and have their bizarre little conversations.

Thank you again to all my reviewers, you guys are really great and loyal...most of you have been reviewing from the start which i LOVE!!! I look forward to your input each chapter!!! I would really love to hear from those who read but haven't reviewed...should I resort to bribery? Or is that wrong? ; )


	9. Bean there, done that

**Disclaimer: **Is there even any need for this after the 8th chapter?

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**Chapter Nine: Bean there, done that**

By the morning, it was time for Harry, Ron, Hermione and Ginny to go back to school. The holidays were over and schoolwork beckoned. It was times like these that Sirius was glad he didn't have to attend school for so long, although spending more time in his mother's house researching ways to get back to his time was hardly a holiday. Everyone gathered at the front entrance, ready to bid farewell to Sirius and Ella. The boys shook each others hands (very manly) while the girls hugged to say goodbye.

"-and when you find out how to get back, write to us! We don't want you to go back without saying goodbye okay? And I'll keep looking in the school library and try to get into the store room to find out more about the urn." Hermione said. Ella smiled and gave Hermione a hug.

"Thank you. But make sure you don't spend too much time researching this. I'm sure you'll have enough schoolwork to be getting on with." There was a chuckle from beside Hermione.

"Researching is like a hobby to Hermione, I don't know how many times she's figured something out that saved our arses." Harry noted. Hermione smiled at him.

"Don't worry; we'll help her look too." He added.

"Thanks Harry. Merlin knows if I have to spend more time with Ella researching in a small room, I'm bound to go insane." Sirius said.

"He'll go insane? He's already driven me insane." Ella mumbled, but only Ginny and Hermione heard. Sirius continued addressing Harry.

"Now, as your godfather, I feel it's my duty to warn you not to be too studious, make sure you spend a lot of your time exploring the castle, pranking the odd person who deserves it every now and then and give Snape hell. If you don't take my advice, you shall not be able to come back here, you understand?" Sirius said very sternly. One would think he was serious. Harry smiled at him.

"Don't worry Sirius," Harry began, putting one hand over his heart and one in the air, "I promise to uphold the marauder lifestyle, leaving no crevice of the castle unexplored and vow to use my invisibility cloak only for reasons which require me to be stealthy and unlawful." Harry lowered his hands and grinned at Sirius. "Is that enough? I don't have to get down on one knee or anything?" He asked.

"Get down on one knee? No, Harry, I don't expect you to propose to me. The pledge you made was enough…although I thought you could have put a little more feeling into it." Sirius replied. Everyone giggled, and then Mrs. Weasley entered the hallway.

"Sirius Black, I hope you're not encouraging the kids to break school rules?" Mrs. Weasley said.

"Oh no Molly, I wouldn't dream of it. I was just wishing the _kids_ luck on their next term at Hogwarts. Can never be supportive enough of the young-uns now can we?" He said with a cheeky manner. Mrs. Weasley gave him a stern look but the corners of her lips managed to twitch. The front door opened and Mr. Weasley entered.

"Righto, the cars packed and ready, say goodbye kids." He said. There was a flurry of movement as they all hugged and wished each other well. Sirius and Harry were the last to finish their goodbyes. They shared a brief hug and separated. Everyone then filed out of the door, waving their tenth and final goodbyes for the time being. Mrs. Weasley turned to Ella and Sirius.

"Now, I've left plenty of food in the cupboards so you should be okay until our next visit. It shouldn't be any longer than two weeks until someone turns up. If you run out of food make sure you owl me, but try not to owl too often, it may look suspicious with owls making their way to and fro around these parts. Make sure you keep track of the days, there's a calendar in the kitchen, don't get up to too much mischief and don't go leaving the house. If you do, we'll know because of the alert system. If there are any dramas, owl me immediately but remember to-"

"Mrs. Weasley, don't worry about us. We'll be fine! The only thing we are at risk of is annoying each other but I'm sure we don't need to owl you for that." Ella reassured her.

"But if you need anything or run into trouble-"

"We'll owl you immediately Molly. Like Ella said, we'll be fine." Sirius pitched in. Mrs. Weasley looked between the two for a moment before pulling each of them into a hug.

"You're good kids, remember that." She looked toward Sirius. "Even you, although Merlin knows you can drive me stir crazy! You're both like part of the family now. Take care of yourselves and-"

"We'll owl if anything happens." Ella and Sirius said in unison. Mrs. Weasley nodded and made her way out to the car, subtly wiping her eyes as she left. The door closed. Sirius and Ella stood staring at it for a good couple of minutes.

Sirius was the one to break the silence. He gave a great sigh and turned to Ella.

"So it's just you and me again hey?" He said, lacking enthusiasm.

"Yeah I suppose so." There was a long pause. "When do you think we should start researching again?" She asked. Sirius replied, scratching his head.

"Can we wait until tomorrow? I just feel like I need today to-" Sirius wasn't sure how to finish this comment. He couldn't explain exactly what he was feeling. After having so many people around for over a week, getting to know his best friend's son and being accepted to the Weasley family, he needed time to process all the information. What better than a near empty house than to do some thinking in? Luckily, he didn't have to articulate what he was feeling as Ella replied before he tried to explain.

"Don't worry, I know what you mean. Some time for ourselves might be good." She said, meeting Sirius' gaze. There was a long pause as they stood there, neither wanting to be the first to leave the hallway. Finally, Ella got up the courage to break the awkwardness.

"I think I might go up to my room. It's early and I could use a sleep in of sorts." She announced.

"Yeah, I might just stay down here." Sirius replied. Ella nodded and walked past him to the staircase, ascending the steps to her room.

* * *

Before Ella could get to the top of the staircase, she heard the front door open. Thinking it may have been Molly back to wish them another goodbye, she turned around expecting to reassure the woman that they would indeed be fine and if she didn't hurry up, they may miss the Hogwarts Express. It so happened that it wasn't Molly, but Kingsley who had entered the house. Ella thought it strange that she should be excited at the thought of finding out how she died, but that is exactly how she felt. Sirius was long gone from the corridor.

"There you are Ella, how are you? I have some news for you. Shall we go into the kitchen?"

"Um, yeah that would be good."

They entered the kitchen in silence. Ella put the kettle on and sat across the dining table from Kingsley. He sat looking at her for a moment, then cleared his throat.

"I want you to understand that I have gone through as many departments of the Ministry I could to find information, so what I have to say is quite definite."

"Okay." Ella replied. She was starting to become nervous.

"Are you sure you want to hear this?" Kingsley asked. He really wasn't sure if it was a good idea for her to find out about her future. Ella was getting even more nervous, it was like a game show where you were about to find out whether you had won the money when the presenter says 'we'll be back after the break'. She felt it unnecessary for Kingsley to drag out this information, but he had done her a favour so she didn't act on her annoyance. She nodded for him to continue.

"As I said, I went through nearly every relevant department and the thing is…I couldn't find anything."

Ella blinked.

"I'm sorry?"

"There was nothing. No location information. No information about your occupation. No records of you even existing after 1977. There was the record of you graduating from Hogwarts but then, nothing."

The kettle had started boiling. The high pitched whistle was enough to bring Ella out of her reverie.

"So what does that mean? I died right after I left Hogwarts?" The kettle was still screaming.

"No I don't believe so. There are no death records, but not long after you graduated Hogwarts, you emptied your account at Gringotts. It is my belief that you either left Great Britain all together, or you were simply no longer a part of the wizarding world."

"But I come from a wizarding family. I love my family. Why would I not be apart of this world, or leave my family?" Ella couldn't understand why her head hurt so much.

"I wouldn't rule out the possibility that you _and _your family left the country. It was a dark time following your graduation from Hogwarts. It could have been a matter of protection, of escaping the immediate danger."

The pain in her head was becoming unbearable. It was only when Kingsley got up to take the kettle off the stove that she realised it had been ready for minutes now. The noise stopped, along with Ella's headache and Kingsley once again sat down.

"What about my wand then? Why did my wand come with me? What could have happened to it? Did you check records from Azkaban, maybe I committed a crime?"

"I checked the criminal register Ella, there was no record of you ever having committed a crime, or even being the victim of a felony. As for your wand, wands can easily break. Maybe you had an accident and your wand was broken beyond repair and you bought a new one. Maybe something happened that made you give up your wand. I simply cannot tell you I am afraid."

Ella didn't trust herself to speak. She barely managed a nod.

"Is there anything I can do for you Ella?" Kingsley asked kindly. Ella shook her head.

"Then I am afraid I must be off. I am so sorry that I couldn't have been more of a help, but I have Ministry business to attend to. Will you be okay? I'm sure young Sirius will look after you, he is quite the cook I've heard."

Ella forced her mouth into a smile. All she managed was a slight elevation of the corners. Kingsley put a reassuring hand on her shoulder.

"I really am sorry. Anything else I can do, don't hesitate to ask."

Kingsley left swiftly and Ella heard the front door closing. She sat staring at the pantry for many minutes until she realised it was extremely cold in the kitchen. With this realisation, she decided she would head back up to her room. It was her safe haven. Determined not to break down on the stairs, Ella put all her energy into walking.

_Five more steps to go. Four more steps to go. Three more steps to go. _  
She couldn't hold on much longer. She ran up the remaining steps and bolted to her room, closing the door quickly behind her. A sob escaped her mouth. The back of her hand was not enough to hold it in. She let the tears flow, let the sobs become as loud as she wanted. She slid down the door and cradled her head in her hands.

Ella hated crying. She avoided it when she could. It wasn't that she felt it was a weakness, that she had no right to cry. It was simply the aftermath of crying that she despised. Her head would ache with every pump of blood, while her lips and eyes would swell to an abnormal size.

The tears had stopped flowing but she was still trying to stifle little hiccups that were the only remains of the sobbing. She hiccupped three times in a row and the strange noise was enough to make her giggle. If she wasn't careful, she would end up in hysterical laughter. It was almost funny that the Wizarding world had, in essence, lost her. She thought it much more likely that she stayed in Great Britain, rather than going abroad. She would always stay near her family. She was more convinced of the theory that she simply stopped associating with the wizarding world, although why she would do this she had no idea. She came from a Wizarding family and only knew the basics about muggle life from Muggle studies and some snippets from Ebony who had grown up with a muggle mother and wizard father. Ella realised she was more upset at being let down by the information. She had wound herself up that she was going to know how she died and that would be the end to her worries. This information simply posed more questions and she had run out of answers.

* * *

Ella spent the rest of the day in her room, thinking and reading a book that Hermione leant her. She realised she had just thought of it as _her _room, not the room in which she was staying in or merely chose when she first came to the house. The house was not at all a friendly environment but there was something about this room which made her feel like it was a refuge. It was a home away from home. Home. It was an emotional issue to think about. Home meant back in her time, where she was supposed to be. Home meant Hogwarts and her four poster bed in the Gryffindor common room. Home was her house in Cardiff where her family was. _Where my family was,_ she thought. Ella didn't want to find out about her family, where they were or even if they were still alive. She could not bear to think that something terrible happened to her parents or her younger brothers. She didn't want them to have disappeared too. While this room held none of her belongings, the bed she had slept in for over a month felt like hers. The clothing stuffed into the wardrobe had been modified to fit _her_. It was not ideal but she felt a sense of ownership of this room. Her thoughts strayed to Sirius. She often wondered what it was like for Sirius growing up in such a house. While he could often appear arrogant, carefree and, let's face it, vain, she knew it was some kind of façade. He had grown up in a house with a family who had such dark and disturbing beliefs and yet he went on to be sorted in Gryffindor and to show an incredible compassion and protectiveness for his friends. While he was a pain in the arse, there was no arguing that the people who had recently occupied this house classed him as family and loved him dearly (even Mrs. Weasley). She smiled at the thought. Once they returned to their time, there was a long road ahead for Sirius, and yet after everything he went through, he was still able to show so many good qualities. The funniest thought was that he was to become a role model for Harry. A bad role model sure, but a role model nonetheless. It was just after sunset, and with this thought, Ella got herself up off her bed and made her way down to the kitchen to make some dinner.

* * *

Sirius had spent the day outside. While it was rather cold and rained periodically throughout the day, he had maintained his position under the veranda, not even moving when the driving rain came in on an angle and soaked his clothes. He hated this house. He hated everything about it, from the colours of the walls to the beheaded elf heads to the memories which lay within. The only room which felt remotely comfortable was his room. He had decorated it himself years before in the Gryffindor colours. He was surprised to see that the decorations remained to the current day, surprised to see that his parents had not gone in there and ripped the place apart because their son was a blood traitor and the black sheep of the family. He snorted at this thought. As lame as it was, the thought of being the 'black' sheep of the family brought him out of his brooding mood. He had spent all day in a huff and it took a simple play on words to bring him undone. He heard Ella pottering around in the kitchen and decided to help her with dinner.

While he was sure he looked worse for wear, showcasing a drenched, scruffy appearance, Sirius was sure he looked not nearly as bad as Ella. While the lump on her head had gone down significantly, she wore the tell tale signs of someone who had had a good cry. Sirius couldn't figure out exactly what had caused this miserable Ella but was sure she hadn't cried since coming here. Therefore it was his mission to cheer her up.

* * *

"Bean?" Sirius asked Ella, offering her the box of Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans. Ella wrinkled her nose in disgust.

"No thanks, I don't fancy eating a slug flavoured bean." She replied.

"You've had a slug flavoured bean?" Sirius asked.

"No, I just don't eat them at all. Don't really want to take the risk."

"What you've never eaten an Every Flavour Bean?"

"Not really no. I don't see the point in buying lollies that I won't even like. I'd rather buy sugar quills or Drooble's gum."

"You've never had even a nibble at one?" Sirius asked curiously.

"No." Ella was becoming irritated now. Sirius got up off his armchair and joined Ella on the sofa, handing the box of beans to her. She simply looked at it.

"Just try one. If it's bad, then at least you can say you've tried one." Sirius reasoned.

"No, I don't want to try one."

"You go swimming on freezing cold days but wont try a little bean? Go on, just have a nibble." Sirius continued.

"First of all, I was trying to prove a point. And as for having a bean, no thanks."

"Please, for me?"

"What makes you think I would eat a bean for you?" She asked.

"Because you're in my house and should respect my wishes?"

"And if I don't respect your wishes, what are you going to do?"

"I can throw you out of this house. It is mine after all."

"Yeah, you throw me out, the alert system is triggered and you're in deep shit."

"Ooh, swearing now ey? I will not tolerate profanities under my roof. Be gone with you!"

"I am not leaving Sirius." This argument was getting nowhere.

"I know you're not leaving. Because you are going to eat one of these beans." Sirius continued.

"Sirius, I am not going to eat one of those beans, so just drop it." Sirius looked at her with a knowing look on his face.

"I get it."

"Get what?"

"You had a bad bean experience didn't you?"

"What are you on about?" Up until this point, Ella and at least pretended to be reading her book. Now she put it down on the coffee table and brought her full attention to Sirius. He nodded.

"I understand, don't worry. You had an experience with a bean so bad that you were traumatised by it and it has affected your whole life. Every time you see a bean you remember the memory that plagues your mind. What was it? A prank? A trick your siblings played on you? Do you have a sister who you constantly competed with only to lose the competition during some bean related event?" He raved.

"For your information, I don't have a sister, only two younger brothers. And second of all, I am not afraid of beans!"

"I think you may be in denial. You see I too have a younger brother and I know what they are like. Are you sure they didn't torment you with beans? Did you have to babysit one day and the house got filled up with beans and you got in trouble and were grounded…or have to work in the mine for a week?" He jibed, clearly trying to rile her up by mocking her Welsh heritage.

"Will you shut up about the bloody bean! I'm not afraid of beans, I have never had a bad experience with a bean and I was never tormented by my brothers with a bean related incident. Shut up with the bloody beans." Sirius decided to change tactics.

"If you have never had any bean experiences why not live a little and have your first one right now. You're like a bean virgin. You need to have at least one bean experience, don't think about whether it will be good or bad just try one."

"If I try a bean will you bloody shut up?" She asked exasperatedly. Sirius thought about it for a moment.

"Yes." He replied. He offered the box to Ella, shaking it slightly to encourage her to take a bean. Her hand extended, about to grab a bean when she pulled it away.

"I can't do it." She said. Sirius shook his head.

"Are you kidding? IT'S A BEAN, GET OVER IT!" He yelled. This was ridiculous.

"I KNOW, DON'T YELL! I just don't want to get a bad one, that's all."

"Where's your sense of adventure? Look if I nibble one and test out its flavour, will you eat it then?" Ella thought about it for a moment. It was a choice between taking the risk with an unknown bean or try a half eaten, no doubt slobbered on, safe bean? There really was only one option.

"Alright, if you taste it first then give it to me, I'll eat one." She finally reasoned. Sirius looked at her surprised.

"Are you serious? You'd rather eat a bean I slobbered all over just because you know its taste rather than taking a risk with a slobber free bean?" Ella nodded. "Well we'll be practically kissing." He stated and blew a kiss in her direction. Ella rolled her eyes.

"Just pick a bean already!" She yelled.

"Oh, now you want to hurry up and eat a bean!" He chose a yellow coloured bean from the box.

"What do you think? Lemon? Mustard? Bug's guts?" he asked.

"JUST BITE IT!" Sirius rolled his eyes and nibbled the edge of the bean, his face full of concentration.

"Mmm, earwax." He said. Ella made a disgusted face.

"Earwax? How could you possibly know what earwax tastes like?"

"You mean to tell me you don't know what earwax tastes like?"

"Why would I?"

"Because everyone knows what earwax tastes like! It's common knowledge!"

"But how could you possibly know what earwax tastes like?" Sirius looked at her, shaking his head.

"I don't know you just do! You put your finger in your ear at some stage, forget to wash your hands, then for some random reason have to put your finger in your mouth…I don't know how it happens, it just does. Everyone knows what earwax tastes like."

"Well I don't and I don't really want to find out!" She argued. Sirius sighed.

"Well you won't have to. It's not earwax, it's banana. Happy?" Ella eyed him suspiciously.

"Yeah right, you give me the bean and I finally find out what earwax tastes like!"

"I'm not lying! I promise, it's banana you sook." He held out the bean to Ella. She looked at it but didn't take it.

"Just take it, it's banana, or did you have a bad banana experience at some point?" He mocked. Ella narrowed her eyes at him and reluctantly took the nibbled bean. She popped it in her mouth. There was a pause before she made a disgusted face and made to spit the bean back out. Sirius grinned and held his finger up.

"Uh uh uh, you're not allowed to spit it out otherwise it won't be a proper bean incident." He had lied. It was earwax flavoured. She chewed the bean slowly, her face in a grimace.

"You know the easy thing to do would be to swallow quickly, not leave the taste in your mouth." She rolled her eyes and swallowed hard.

"I'm going to kill you!" She made to lunge at him. He easily fended her off. He was taller than her, even when they were sitting down. She kept trying to get at him, but he was too strong. Although she was yelling at him she couldn't help but laugh. She was trying to hit every inch of him. She only stopped when she got another taste of the earwax flavoured bean. She quit trying to attack Sirius and used her sleeve to wipe her tongue.

"I can't believe you did that to me! I trusted you, you berk!" She was making gagging noises while Sirius laughed hysterically.

"Rule number one love. Never trust Sirius Black."

"That's obvious, but clearly your persuasive skills are second to none." She gagged again. "Ugh, now I have to brush my teeth. That was foul." She got up from the sofa and made to leave the room. Sirius yelled after her.

"Congratulations on two firsts; your first bean experience and your first earwax experience. I'm so glad I had the privilege to witness both. It is an integral moment of your life." Ella had just exited the room but popped her face back in for a moment.

"Yeah, and it won't be remembered once we go back. I find solace in that." She smiled as she left the room again.

Mission accomplished.

* * *

**A/N: **Hey there my lovely readers! Please don't kill me, I know you didn't find out exactly what happened to Ella but its a start...it's an important plot point so what better way to torture you than leave you hanging? (just be glad i don't do cliffies...well not yet anyway)

Thank you to my reviewers! Such lovely things you always write!!! I'm going to need all the encouragement I can to finish this story because this is the last of the chapters which I already had something written, so please review and I will hopefully not be too long with updating!!! (If it helps, the next chapter will have a Sirius/Ella development...and it will only get better from there on!!)


	10. I wouldn't die for you

**Disclaimer: **What's not mine? Plenty of things...and that includes harry potter

**A/N: **Yes I know, I know! This chapter is well overdue! I know you don't really care and just want to throw daggers at me, but i have been extremely busy. I have also developed a cold in the middle of summer like weather which is a royal pain in the arse too! Anyway here 'tis!

* * *

**Chapter Ten: I wouldn't die for you**

"Oh my god," Sirius thought, "I'm sleeping with Ella."  
Little did his conscience acknowledge that he was _only_ sleeping with Ella, nothing more.

That night there had been a thunderstorm. Ella hated thunderstorms. Last time, she met Sirius in the lounge room where they had a rather uncomfortable and depressing conversation. Sirius had since moved into his old bedroom. Ella had no other choice but to meet him there in order to make herself less scared. Not that she told Sirius this.

She knocked on his door a number of times. Apparently he was asleep. This didn't stop Ella though; she knocked rather loudly until she heard a muffled 'hmm?". She took this as permission to enter.

"Are you awake?" she asked the bleary eyed Sirius.

"Well I am now." He mumbled.

"Oh, sorry. Um, I'll just go then shall I?" She had made to exit the room completely but Sirius didn't let her. She knew he'd cave.

"Like I said, I'm awake now, what did you want?"

"If you want to go to sleep I understand. I was just being silly."

"Yeah you are being silly, what did you want? I'm not going to wake up in the middle of the night for nothing so you may as well tell me now." Ella paused. How do you tell someone you barely know that you are afraid of thunderstorms and if they talked to you, you would feel much better than if you had to stay in a vast, empty room by yourself?

"Um, I was just wondering if we could talk a little you know? Get to know each other a little better?" She said, not very convincingly.

Sirius, being sleep deprived, hadn't connected her presence with the thunderstorm, and allowed her to stay and talk as he truly believed that's what she wanted. In essence, he was right. He patted the bed next to him, indicating for her to sit down. She did so with no complaints.

"So, what do you want to talk about?" He asked as she took a seat next to him.

"I don't know, anything I suppose."

A flash of lightning lit up the room and Ella jumped. Sirius thought it was because she was uncomfortable being on his bed. He smirked at her.

"You look scared shitless. Relax, I'm not going to try anything."

"Oh well that's a shame, I was kinda hoping you'd have your way with me. That's why I came in here. If you're not up to it though, I understand." She replied slyly, shifting as if to indicate she was going to go back to her room now. It took every ounce of her effort to not burst out laughing as Sirius had shot up from his pillow and was gaping at her.

"You – me – you came here –"

"Relax, I'm not going to try anything. I was kidding you dolt." Ella said, using Sirius' own line on him.

"Oh, of course. Yeah I knew you were joking." He replied sheepishly.

"Sure you did." Ella said, rolling her eyes. She jumped again as the room lit up.

"You cold?"

"What? Oh, yeah it is a bit cold." She lied, taking the excuse so as not to admit her fear of storms.

"You can get under if you want." Sirius said, indicating to the blankets. Ella looked a little apprehensive and raised an eyebrow.

"Are you wearing pants?" Sirius laughed.

"Yes I'm wearing pants. My favourite flannelette pyjama pants to be exact."

"If they were your favourite, why were they still in your wardrobe after all these years?" She asked as Sirius pulled back the covers for her.

"You know, I have no idea." He answered.

While Ella was relieved Sirius was wearing pants, it was not only because it would be particularly awkward if he had nothing on under the covers; she also hadn't shaved her legs for about a week now. If she had accidentally kicked him under the covers (which was likely) he was sure to get a chafing from her prickly legs.

She rearranged the pillows so that she was lying on her side, facing Sirius who was mirroring her position. There was silence for a while. A comfortable silence. That was until Ella came up with another of her winning conversation topics.

"If you were an animagus, what do you think you'd turn into?" She asked innocently. Sirius was slightly taken aback. She didn't know about his animagus form. Did she?

"Why do you want to know that?" He asked suspiciously.

"I don't know, I just thought of it. What do you think you'd be?" Sirius shook his head at her and smiled, then pretended to think about it.

"I think I'd be some kind of dog."

"Of course you would be." Ella said with a smile.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Nothing, nothing. Why do you think you'd be a dog?" She asked, genuinely curious. _Maybe because that's what my animagus form is. _Sirius thought.

"I don't know, my patronus is this large dog and they're supposed to represent some form of your inner being or essence or whatever, so I don't see why it would be any different." It was the truth too. His patronus was the same as his animagus form. Ella stared at him in shock.

"You can do a patronus?"

"Don't sound so impressed next time."

"Oh, sorry. It's just that I knew you were smart, but producing a patronus – that's – wow." She said in awe.

Sirius wanted to tell her that he was also one of the youngest anamagi ever to exist, just to see if Ella could look even more impressed at his skills. He decided against it. If he told her about him and his friends being animagi, he would have to tell her about Remus being a werewolf and the fact that they sneak out of the castle every full moon, and how dangerous their monthly plans could become. Admiration he could handle, disappointment he couldn't. Especially Ella's.

They talked for ages about anything and everything. Their friends, school, family. It was a testament to how tired they were becoming as the next conversation unravelled.

"You know, I went past the kitchen one morning when Harry, Ron and Hermione were in there, and I swear I heard them talking about horse crutches."

Sirius burst out laughing after Ella said this.

"I promise you its true! I didn't believe it at first either but I kept listening and they were talking really seriously about horse crutches or something."

"You sure you didn't mishear and they were actually talking about whore's crutches?" Sirius asked with a straight face. Ella's eyes were becoming extremely heavy but her tiredness did not make her miss Sirius' (rather bad) joke. She opened one eye and swatted him upside his head.

"Ow! Oh come on, that was funny, and would make much more sense than what you thought you heard!"

"Yeah, except the fact that it was Hermione who was also in on the conversation and I very much doubt she would say the word 'whore' let alone talk about a whore's crutch."

"Oh but it's always the quiet ones who are the most kinky." Sirius responded. Ella didn't comment on this as she was mid-yawn.

"Despite this thrilling conversation topic, I think I'm ready for bed."

"But you are in bed." Came Sirius' smart reply as he watched Ella's eyes close again.

"Yes, but it's not _my _bed."

"I know, it's _my _bed."

"I _know. _And it's a very comfy bed."

"I _know."_

"I know you know. You know everything." Ella was halfway asleep now and mumbling her words. Sirius thought it was extremely amusing…and very adorable. He watched as her whole body relaxed and she completely fell asleep. He was completely mesmerised by Ella, but was equally frustrated that he felt this way as he had absolutely no idea what it was about her that intrigued him so. She looked so calm laying beside him, and he was sure she was in an extremely deep sleep. Deep enough for him to kiss her goodnight without her noticing. Deep enough for him to 'accidentally' cuddle up to her in the middle of the night, without her noticing. Sirius continued to stare at her, his hand unconsciously creeping toward her cheek.

That was until he was abruptly stopped by Ella's arm landing heavily across his neck, almost choking him. Sirius panicked as he thought Ella had caught him looking at her (or blatantly staring, rather) and had hit him out of protest. Apparently she was just a restless sleeper though, as she had simply shifted to roll over in her sleep. Despite the wave of relief Sirius felt at having not been caught, the fact he was now winded was no consolation. That night, he made sure to keep his hands, and thoughts, to himself.

* * *

Sirius jolted as a loud tapping woke him. He couldn't remember why he felt so tired, extremely rigid and sore. Then he was abruptly reminded as he looked to his left and saw Ella sprawled out across a large expanse of his bed. Her head lay on the pillow at the corner of the bed, while her legs took up most of the room as they extended diagonally toward Sirius' side of the bed. Sirius had spent the whole night trying to stay comfortable with the little space Ella had given him. It may not have been so bad had he not been petrified of her walloping him again. He pulled back the tiny portion of the doona Ella had left him and made his way to the window where an owl appeared to be the source of the incessant tapping noise. As Sirius let the bird in and un-wrapped the large parcel, Ella stirred in bed.

"In the land of the living now are we?"

"Mrrmf." Came Ella's reply as she rubbed her eyes.

"You weren't dreaming last night by any chance were you?" Sirius asked as he started skimming through a book that the owl had brought him.

"Hm?"

"Weren't dreaming you were playing beater in a quidditch match by any chance?"

"What are you on about?" Ella asked lazily. Apparently her sleep had been much better than Sirius'.

"Well you belted me pretty hard last night, I thought you must have mistaken me for a bludger." He replied, pointing to the large red mark across his neck and chest. Ella put her hands to her mouth in shock.

"Did I do that?"

"Yeah, but its okay, I know you're scared of thunderstorms so I feel I have good blackmailing material to get you back with." He smirked.

"What? I'm not scared of thunderstorms, where did you get that idea from? I just-" Ella stopped as she saw the look Sirius was giving her.

"What's that you've got there?" She asked, trying to divert the attention away from herself. Sirius just rolled his eyes.

"I wrote to Hermione to see if she could borrow out some books about time turners and send them to me." Ella looked confused.

"But Dumbledore said this wasn't anything to do with time turners. _And _he said the answers were in this house, not in a book from Hogwarts."

"Well, the book is in the house now, so I think it counts." He said, going back to skimming the book's contents.

"But, Dumbledore said-"

"Does it really matter what he said? I just had a hunch and I'm following up on it."

"But I thought we decided it was about the runes on the urn, and even if we got a hold of a similar one, we would never be able to understand what the runes said, and-"

"Yeah, yeah, I know all that, I just thought that maybe we weren't focussing on the right thing." He said absently.

"Meaning?" Ella prompted. Sirius was busy reading and didn't answer. She threw a pillow at him.

"Hey, no need to get violent, last time you did I ended up with this." He said, pointing to his neck.

"Well you wouldn't answer me. What do you think we should have focussed on?"

"The dust."

* * *

Sirius spent the rest of that day and the next reading the books Hermione had sent him. While they felt they had spent hours upon hours researching how to get back to their time, they really hadn't found out much at all. They had found out about the urn, which had turned out to be helpless. They knew it wasn't a time-turner that sent them to the future. The list of what they didn't know was much more extensive, and it was this list that Sirius planned to narrow. He had shut himself off in the drawing room to stay out of Ella's hair while he read up on his hunch. Ella wasn't convinced that time-turners had much to do with what happened but she didn't voice this aloud, preferring to leave Sirius to his own devices. She had started making a timeline including all the information they had found out so far. She had just finished marking a large cross on the timetable, indicating the date Sirius died, when he ran excitedly into the room.

"I TOLD YOU IT HAD SOMETHING TO DO WITH TIME-TURNERS!" He announced. Ella looked up from her parchment and stared at Sirius, her poised quill a moment away from dripping ink over the table.

"Well do you want me to tell you what I found out or are you going to sit there like a stunned carrot?"

"Stunned carrot?"

"I'm excited, I don't know or care what's coming out of my mouth now do you want to know what I found out or not?" He said this all very quickly and Ella continued to stare at him as though he had gone crazy.

"Well do you?" He urged.

"Oh, yes, okay, continue."

"Do you know what makes a time turner work?" Before Ella could wager a guess, Sirius continued, "It's the dust! Silvery dust, well sand actually but what we thought was dust is actually the same sand which is found in time turners and when you turn over the hourglass thingy in a time-turner, the sand is disturbed and you end up travelling backward depending on how fast and how far you turn the time-turner. Now, with time-turners you can only go backwards to something which has already happened, and that's how you become a new observer, which is why it's possible to have two of you in the one place, because the event has already happened-"

"But we travelled _forward _and because of an urn, not an hourglass."  
"I'm getting to that! You don't actually have to have an hourglass, just a magical object that the sand can be held in. Hourglasses were brought about because the ministry wanted to regulate the control of time travel, pretty much because they were shit scared of what could happen as they didn't know much about time travel in the first place. Well they still don't either, apparently there is somewhere in the Ministry that they're still doing experiments on the sand. Anyway, like I said, we have a unique case because we travelled _forward_ not backwards, and there is only one of us. So somehow, the runes on the urn would have been specifically designed to enhance the use of the sand. Why it ended up being us who were transported to this time I have no bloody idea, but at least we know what it was that sent us here. Maybe we just need to find some more sand so we can be sent back!"

Ella had difficulty processing this as Sirius had been talking a mile a minute since he began.

"So, if you can use any magical object, why weren't there more time-turners in the first place, I mean they're really rare."

"Haven't you been listening? The Ministry ended up regulating the use of the sand, only being available from the Ministry itself in the hourglass form. The sand isn't easy to get hold of either. I read for ages and it was never written down where the sand came from. It's like the information was erased from history, probably from someone using the sand in the first place."

"So if it's so regulated and hard to find, how are we going to get our hands on some?"

"We don't have contacts at the Ministry for nothing now do we?"

"So we get in touch with Kingsley or Arthur and try to get some through them?"

"That was my plan!"

"And what do we do with it once we get it?" Sirius paused for a moment, appearing confused for the first time since coming to tell Ella what he had found.

"I don't know. But we'll figure it out." Despite Sirius' enthusiasm, Ella remained perturbed. This didn't go unnoticed by Sirius.

"What's wrong? We're a step closer to finding out how to get home. Don't you think I'm right?"

"No it's not that, I _know _you must be right. I just can't help but remember what Dumbledore said. I'm not sure we can go back the same way we came, that's all."

"Yeah but what has Dumbledore done for us? He saw us on the first day we got here and haven't heard from him since."

"But don't you trust Dumbledore?"

"Don't you trust _me_?" Sirius shocked himself with how desperate his comment sounded. Ella stood from her chair and stood right in front of Sirius before she answered. She stared straight into his eyes.

"Of course I do, but I can't help trusting Dumbledore too."

Sirius stared straight back at her and was none the wiser in figuring out what was going on in her head. This is why it shocked him when she took his hand and lead him over to the window seat. They sat down, heads leaning against the window as they looked at each other helplessly.

"I trust the old codger too. I just really want to go back. The sand fits our story perfectly." Sirius finally said. Ella gave his hand a squeeze.

"I know." Sirius squeezed back, but didn't ease the pressure. His thought pattern was in complete disarray. The contact between them made him very confused as to how he felt about Ella. He was afraid the feelings he appeared to have for her were not real, that it was simply because they had been through a lot together, had helped each other, like some warped Stockholm Syndrome scenario. He was petrified that the reason he had developed feelings for Ella was because he was shit scared of being alone. He thought about what he had learnt about his future over the past couple of weeks and realised that's exactly how he would end up. Alone. He made a sudden decision that he would not pass up a good thing when he could get it. If Ella showed signs of feeling the same way, he would do something about it. He moved his gaze from their entwined hands, to her eyes. He was sure his face mirrored desperation; he hoped not in a sleazy way. He was just desperate for a reaction from her. His eyes flickered between hers, searching for the slightest sign of, well, anything really, just not the usual wall she held up.

Nothing so far. His head motioned forward ever so slightly, his intent clear. Nothing. Not to be deterred, Sirius leant even closer, his nose brushing close to Ella's. Sirius hated suspense and was sure if he was made to wait any longer, he would start to do very uncool things which were unbecoming of his character. Like having sweaty palms and mumbling incoherently about nothing or-

"Do you miss Miranda most?"

_What. The. Fuck? _Sirius thought. He jerked backward at her comment and let go of her hand.

"I'm sorry?" He said, deadpan.

"I just asked if you missed Miranda most? From the people back home?" It had taken at least two seconds for Sirius to remember who Miranda was, and then another two seconds for him to actually realise Ella had asked him about his girlfriend when he was clearly going to kiss her. Who did that? If that wasn't rejection, he didn't know what was.

"Uh, I'm going to go back to the drawing room, see what I can find." He got up with the intention of leaving the room as quickly as possible. He mumbled to himself as he crossed the room, Ella still positioned on the window seat, her facial expression still unreadable.

"_Wouldn't have mattered if we'd kissed, Miranda's probably married with a fucking gaggle of kids now, and we're pretty much dead back home, it's not as though she would have found out…"_

"What was that?" Ella said, almost sharply. Sirius turned around, feigning ignorance.

"Did you just say _we're pretty much dead back home?_" Sirius figured he couldn't get out of this now.

"So what if I did?" He answered childishly. Ella's reaction was not what he expected. A huge smile graced her face and she rushed to the parchment she was working on before Sirius had come in with his 'sand' revelation. She didn't look up, but simply started scribbling on the parchment. Sirius decided to leave it to her. She wasn't his favourite person right now.

* * *

Ella had finished the timeline. The first date was the day they left Hogwarts in their time. The last date that appeared was in January, 1997. It was a sad thought that they hadn't even acknowledged the New Year, but they had other things to worry about. Like how to get back. A black mark still signified Sirius' death, accompanied by a neatly written 'Bellatrix' in brackets underneath. A question mark hovered at the top of the page with Ella's name and a double sided arrow, indicating she could have died anywhere between graduating Hogwarts to the day they arrived in the future. Other dates were penned in, including Harry's birthday, the day of Sirius' imprisonment, the day Ella seemingly disappeared off the wizarding world radar. The only dates Ella cared about were the current dates and those labelled 'coma'. This time it was Ella's turn to barge in on Sirius with enthusiasm.

"You said we were practically dead back in our time."

"Yeah, so?" Sirius was expecting her to yell at him.

"What if we are dead?"

"What do you mean 'what if? We are dead, we've practically seen all evidence bar the tombstone." Sirius answered irritably. He still felt a little rejected.

"Yes, in this time, but back then, while we're in a coma. What if we are as good as dead?"

"What exactly is your point?"

Ella ignored his snappiness.

"We're not supposed to be here."

"Well that's a startling revelation."

"No, just listen. We are not supposed to be here. We shouldn't exist because we're already dead, and yet, the time where we are supposed to exist, we are practically dead."

"So you're theory is a kind of 'opposite land' then is it?" Sirius' snide remarks didn't put Ella off a bit.

"Just think about it! We practically died to come here, so why couldn't we do the same to go back?"

Sirius stared at her as though she was crazy.

"Are you saying we have to kill ourselves to get back?" Sirius was not expecting the response he got from Ella.

"EXACTLY!!!" Sirius furrowed his brow at her. It took him a while to respond.

"That is just fucking nuts!"

"No it's not." Ella said as she unfurled the timeline she had been working on.

"We were wrong. Two of us can exist at one time, just not in the _same _time. When you've used a time-turner, how do you make it so that there is only one of you again?"

"Well, because you go backward, you end up arriving at the same spot you left from so when your other self disappears, you take their spot."

"Exactly, and because we've come forward, it's worked out differently. We are in a coma back home, we aren't functional back then because we are functional now. It's all backwards because we aren't supposed to be here, in this time. Therefore, we need to make it right and no longer exist here in order to get back home."

"So what, I find my darling cousin and ask her to kill me again so I can go back? And you-" Sirius paused in his argument. If that's what they had to do to get back, how was Ella going to make it?

"Actually, I never thought of dieing in the same way, that could just work!" Ella said excitedly.

"What makes you think you're right though?" He replied, in an accusatory tone.

At that moment, there was a flash of fire and a letter was lying in the middle of the room with one long, golden feather. Ella raised her eyebrow but picked up the note. There was one sentence only.

_Trust your instincts._

Ella was beaming.

"See, it's right! We are right! WE GET TO GO HOME!!!" She screamed. Sirius stood reading the note from Dumbledore and knew her theory was right. They had to die to get home. Ella ran up to him and shook his shoulders.

"SIRIUS WE GET TO GO BACK! WE GET TO GO BACK! WE GET-"

"Ella, SHUT UP!" Sirius shouted as he pushed her hands away from him.

"What's wrong? We know how to get back, we just have to-"

"Find out how you died? Find my crazy cousin? Maybe its not worth it, maybe I don't want to go back now." Now Ella looked at him as though he was crazy.

"Why wouldn't you want to go back? You've got friends and-"

"Family? A great life to look forward to? Friends who kill other friends and put me in prison? Yeah, I can't wait to live a life of misery and deception." Ella was suddenly mad at him.

"Look, I know it sucks for you but fucking hell, it sucks for all of us! I disappear off the fucking face of the earth for Merlin's sake and you don't see me going go off on an angry rampage because life is unfair-"

"NO, you just fucking hold it all in and don't let anyone know what the fuck you're feeling! You think you handle things so much better than me, but you don't. You just avoid it until you don't have to think about it or the problem fixes itself! Maybe I'm selfish sometimes because I complain about my fucked up life, but you're just as selfish because you never let anyone in!"

"Oh, no, say what you're really thinking, please!" Ella replied sarcastically.

"You want to know what I think? Really? I think you care way too much about what other people think. I think you're so uptight trying to please everyone that you don't even know what you want-"

"Well I would tell you what I think of you but apparently I can't think for myself!"

"There you go, avoiding the issue again! Why don't you just go count something!"

Ella was nearly about to pull her hair out. She was about to walk away but decided against it and turned back around to face Sirius.

"At least I'm not afraid to go back to my life! I don't see what you're so afraid of! We're going to go back, going to live our lives and forget everything that has happened here! It's not like we'll be able to predict how shit everything turns out! We'll just be ourselves again and have normal dreams for the future and believe-"

"I KNOW IT'S NOT ALL ABOUT ME! Like you said, we'll go back and forget and everything will be back to normal! And if normal means we go back to never talk or hang out or get to know one another, then I don't think its worth dieing for!" Sirius stormed out of the room and slammed the door. He wasn't angry because Ella was right, or that they had to die…again. He was angry that Ella had made him feel this way in the first place.

* * *

**A/N: **Hope that chapter makes up for being very late! Bonus points to people who guessed what Harry, Ron and Hermione were actually talking about. Extra bonus points to people who understand how Ella and Sirius dieing will send them back (it was extremely difficult to explain so i hope i did okay...I'm not to confident that it makes sense but ill be happy to explain further if you ask me). Guess what happens next chapter!!!! I've written the best bit of the next chapter already...

Thank you to my reviewers you wonderful wonderful people you! Thank you to 'rubudu' for your reviews...clearly i can't send a thank you by email so here are your thanks!!!! Read, review and ill try to answer any burning questions!!! xxoo


	11. The Bells Revealed

**Disclaimer: **Hands up who doesn't own harry potter!!! ME ME!!!

**A/N: **Yep, been a little too long i suppose...but here it is, over 6.000 words long which hopefully makes up for the delay!!!

* * *

**Chapter Eleven: The Bells Revealed**

Ella hadn't moved since Sirius slammed the door and left her alone in the room. That was ten minutes ago. She would have been busying herself by counting the number of books in the room but after Sirius' biting remark, she felt that maybe, for the first time in her life, she would have to face something head on. She could live with Sirius nudging her in a flirty gesture. She could deal with Sirius trying to kiss her. Ella could deal with the possibility that Sirius had feelings for her because she could easily ignore them. Before, Ella could just put it down to the fact that she was overanalysing every situation but now, Sirius' words were concrete. Now that Sirius had blatantly stated that he had feelings for her, there was no more speculation; no more justifying that he had a girlfriend and therefore couldn't possibly like her; no more feeling as though she was definitely not his type. Now it appeared that it didn't matter that he had a girlfriend, or that she was not his type. He liked her.

Ella felt sick.

* * *

The next day was definitely not what Ella had expected. She had learned a lot about Sirius over the last couple of weeks and was expecting him to be either moping around or in a rage over their argument. One thing was for sure, he would ignore her.

That is why it was such a shock when the next morning, Sirius barged into Ella's room and lightly shook her awake. He leant over her with a small smile on his face.

"Ella, it's snowing! Wake up and get dressed, we're going out."

Ella was sure she was dreaming. She stared at Sirius with bleary eyes, then closed them again to return to slumber. Unfortunately for her, Sirius wasn't a dream and was adamant in his task of waking her up.

"Come on, come on, come on! If you don't get up now, I will drag you out of bed." He said more urgently, shaking her a little more vigorously this time. Ella finally sat up in bed and rubbed her eyes.

"What the hell's going on?" She asked, referring to the fact that Sirius was quite happily talking to her when he should be off sulking in the lounge room.

"I told you, it's snowing. We're going out." Ella looked at him warily. Maybe she had dreamed their argument? It seemed the only explanation for his behaviour.

"I see nothing exciting about going into the backyard." She answered and attempted to snuggle back down in her pillows. Sirius wouldn't allow this though, and pulled the doona away from her.

"I don't mean the back yard. We're going out into London."

"What? No, we can't, they've got the alert system activated. We leave and they'll know. Now give me back my doona so I can go back to sleep." She was not only angry at him for suggesting something so absurd, she was also angry that he wasn't acting how she expected he would. How dare he do something she didn't expect from him? The nerve!

"Sorry, I need you to get up and get dressed so we can get out of this house for a day."

Ella rolled over and looked him up and down. He was already dressed in his usual red boots, jeans and shirt combo, although his shirt looked more pirate-like than his usual ones. Clearly this was him dressing up a notch.

"You're serious about this?"

"Dead serious." He said with a smile. Ella couldn't believe he was joking about the very topic they had been arguing about the previous night. Clearly this was an impostor Sirius. She was intrigued.

"You mean to say you've found a way to get past the alert system?"

Sirius nodded in response. She thought for a moment. She had wanted to get out of this godforsaken house for ages now, and it appeared her wish could be granted today. Then again, what would happen if they were caught or recognised in London? _Sod it, _she thought and walked to the wardrobe to choose some clothes.

"Remember, we're going into London, dress nice." Sirius said and left her to it.

* * *

Sirius was waiting by the back door when Ella came down, very rugged up. She didn't really have the best selection of clothes to choose from but she had done her best with a basic jeans and overcoat combination while the hat and scarf Molly had knitted her made for the warmest accessories. Sirius opened the door signalling her to go through. A gust of wind blew snow onto the doorstep. As she walked through, Ella eyed Sirius.

"Aren't you going to put a jumper or jacket on, or anything?

"Nah, I'll be fine. I like the snow."

"_More like you didn't want to ruin your outfit," _she mumbled, then continued louder, "Well if you get cold, don't come crying to me."_"_

Sirius heard this comment but decided to ignore it. The door closed behind him and they were standing in the backyard, snow settling in patches on the ground.

"So, how do we get out of here then?" Ella asked, expecting some elaborate scheme to get to the 'outside' world. A dramatic display of magic may also rid her of her remaining anger toward Sirius.

"It's simple, we walk straight through. We don't exist, how can an alert system be alerted to something that doesn't exist?"

Ella was mightily let down. She rolled her eyes and attempted to storm toward the house but Sirius took her hand and led her through a gate in the tiny backyard that she swore wasn't there before. They were suddenly standing in the street behind Grimmauld place, perfectly safe and sound while there was not a siren to be heard, indicating an escape. Ella looked around, stunned.

"It - it worked."

"Of course it worked, I'm not stupid."

"But it's just so unbelievable. I know we're not supposed to exist but it's not like we're invisible, the alert system should have gone off!"

"Then how come it didn't?" Sirius replied with an extremely smug expression on his face. Ella looked at him in awe.

"That's unbelievable." She repeated. What she didn't see was Sirius putting his wand back into his pant pocket.

* * *

Sirius and Ella walked a couple of blocks before they stopped at a muggle bus stop. No sooner than they arrived, the bus pulled up. Sirius got on and payed for both their tickets with muggle money while Ella stood waiting outside, as if not sure what to do.

"Come on love, I can't wait here all day, I've got a schedule to keep." The driver said, irritated.

"Oh, sorry sir, I've just never really been-" She was about to say she had never been on a bus before but shut up at the looks she was getting from Sirius and the driver. The driver looked slightly concerned and Sirius looked rather amused. He leant in to speak to the driver.

"She's Welsh." He said, and as if this explained everything, the driver nodded and finally pulled the bus away from the curb. Ella swatted Sirius once they sat down.

"Ow, what was that for."

"How dare you make fun of me, you know I've never been on muggle transportation before."

"That's why it was so funny!"

"Where'd you get muggle money from anyway?" She asked quietly.

"Apparently when I died I left Harry all my money, so I asked him to take some out of the vault and exchange it for muggle money."

"Why?" Ella asked, slightly confused. There would be no reason for him to have muggle money.

"Just figured it might be cool to go shopping at some stage."

"Right." Ella said, not entirely sure he was telling the truth.

She busied herself with watching her surroundings. She suddenly understood the appeal of train-spotting; muggle transport was very fascinating. After they drove a few blocks, Ella was interested in where they were going.

"So, where are you taking me Mr. Black?"

"I just figured we'd hit the Soho district you know? Nothing classier than strip clubs, and who knows, maybe we'll find those whores you heard Harry, Ron and Hermione talking about!"

"I can only assume you're joking."

"However did you guess? We'll just get off at the West End and just go from there, does that sound more appealing?"

"Very appealing."

* * *

Sirius was having the time of his life. Ella was getting a little pissed off. How was it that every single shop they went in to, she would be completely ignored while Sirius would immediately get the attention of the attractive sales assistant behind the counter? Even the male sales assistants noticed Sirius before they noticed her. Sirius had caught on to the general script of going into a shop and flirting with the girl behind the counter which left Ella to browse around by herself. The last few stops were clothing shops, as Ella had figured her very casual dress was one reason she was continually being shunned and was set on getting a new outfit. She skimmed the racks and picked out as many clothes as she could hold. The mere fact that she loved shopping was enough to keep her anger at bay. She made her way to the counter to ask permission to use the change rooms.

"Excuse me, is it alright if I try these on?" She asked. The sales assistant, Ashley as her badge indicated, looked Ella up and down, then nodded before plastering a smile on her face and returning her attention to Sirius. He was leaning against his elbow on the counter, his other hand on his hip in a typical flirtatious stance.

"So, are you from around here?" Ella heard Ashley ask as she waltzed into the change rooms. She unravelled her many layers to try on the pile of clothes she brought in with her, all the while listening to the conversation at the counter.

"I didn't think you had been in here before, I'd certainly remember someone like you." Ashley purred. Ella rolled her eyes as she pulled a dress over her head.

"It's definitely a shame. Otherwise I'd shop here all the time, provided you were working of course." Sirius answered.

Ella found the whole conversation nauseating and decided to block out Ashley's irritating giggle and Sirius' smooth tones.

The full length mirror stood just outside her cubicle so she was continuously making the short trip to check out her selection of clothes. Three dresses, two pairs of pants and a shirt later, Ella couldn't help but listen in to the conversation again.

"So, where would I go to find you normally?" Ashley certainly was forward.

"Ah you wouldn't believe me even if I told you."

"Try me. I'm very open minded." Ashley prompted.

_I bet that's not the only thing that's always open, _thought Ella as she left her cubicle to see herself in the full length mirror.

"You really want to know where I'm from?" Sirius asked. Ella continued surveying the dress in the mirror. She liked it. It was yellow, cute and flowed gracefully.

"All right, I'm from the past." Ella let out a stifled laugh as she heard Sirius' answer.

"Oh you kidder." Ella saw Ashley hit Sirius on the shoulder in the reflection of the mirror.

"I told you, you wouldn't believe me."

"Well it would explain your retro wardrobe."

"And what's wrong with what I'm wearing exactly?"

"From where I'm standing, absolutely nothing." Ashley replied sultrily.

Ella scoffed a little too loud as she saw Sirius grin back at Ashley. This finally brought Sirius' attention away from Miss Ashley the shop assistant. He looked at what Ella was wearing and looked impressed.

"That looks really great, you should buy it." He said.

Ella tried extremely hard not to laugh as she saw the look on Ashley's face when Sirius stopped paying attention to her.

"It's such a nice dress." Ella said despairingly to the mirror.

"No need to be forlorn about it, just buy it."

Ella was about to say something but was cut off by Ashley.

"Come now Sirius, don't pressure the girl into anything. If she doesn't want to buy the dress, she doesn't have to."

"Are you seriously saying she shouldn't get that dress? Come on, it looks great on her."

Ashley turned up her nose slightly as she looked at Ella.

"Well it _is _a very nice _dress._" Ashley made clear not to comment on Ella at all. Ella looked slightly put out from this comment and re-entered the change room to get back into her own clothes. She resurfaced with the large pile of clothes in her hands.

"You going to get the dress?" Sirius asked.

Ella dumped the clothes on the counter for Ashley to put back on the racks. This gave Ella some form of satisfaction, knowing that she had made more work for the insufferable shop assistant.

"No, I think I'll leave it."

"But-"

"I said, I'll just leave it." Ella said pointedly, with a look which indicated further questions were not welcome. Sirius clearly understood as he directed his next comment at Ashley.

"Well it was very nice to meet you Ashley, but it appears Ella here has not found what she was looking for and we'd better get going."

"You're with her?" Ashley asked, not very politely. Ella gave her the best death stare she could muster. Sirius simply laughed.

"That would be why I have been talking to her this whole time."

"Oh, I thought you were just being friendly because she-"

"Because I what?" Ella cut her off.

"Oh, nothing." Ashley replied. Although Ella was the taller girl, Ashley somehow was able to look down her nose at her.

"Right, we best be off, see you Ashley."

Ella didn't bother saying goodbye or waiting for Sirius, she had already left the shop. Sirius didn't come out for a good five minutes. When he surfaced, he held in his hand a piece of paper which Ella guessed was not his receipt.

"Let me guess, she gave you her number."

"Actually, she wrote down two numbers."

"Pity you don't have two phones then."

Sirius noticed Ella's sharp tone and didn't completely understand why she was being snappy.

"Actually I don't even have one phone. Is something wrong?"

"No, nothing's wrong, I just appear to be invisible whenever I'm with you." Needless to say, Sirius was confused at this remark. He had been talking to her all day, even while he was flirting with eager shop assistants.

"Invisible? It was my idea to take you out, how could I be ignoring you?"

"Not you, the stupid sales people around here! You walk into a shop and you get five star service and everyone's phone numbers while I get ignored and then scoffed at because people can't believe I'm actually out for the day with you!"

"What? That's just silly." Ella just rolled her eyes and kept walking. Sirius thought she was being rather unreasonable but didn't comment. He valued his life.

* * *

An hour later, Sirius was finally convinced Ella was not being paranoid about the 'evil shopkeepers'. They had gone into a jewellery store in Hatton Gardens where Sirius was greeted instantly and shown the wares while Ella was left to browse the cabinets, genuinely interested in buying something. She was looking at a beautiful but simple ring which had taken her fancy. She had turned to ask the shop assistant a question but found both women across the room showing Sirius…well showing him nothing but their charm and best flirtatious smiles. Ella walked over.

"Excuse me, would I was wondering if I could get a closer look at that ring over there."

One girl stared blankly at her while the other rolled her eyes and made her way across the shop to the ring of Ella's desire. Sirius noticed this and thought that maybe Ella hadn't been overreacting after all. He decided to do something about it. He excused himself from the remaining shop assistant and waltzed over to where Ella was standing and put his arms around her waist.

"Found something that takes your fancy dear?" He asked. Ella turned her head and raised an eyebrow at him, successfully sending her message across that she thought he was mental. Sirius winked for her to play along.

"Yeah I found the most beautiful ring." Ella replied, feeling quite foolish.

"Splendid! Although I have to approve of the ring of course. Can't have you frolicking around with a cheap, ugly engagement ring now can I? What would people think of me?"

"You two are to be married?" Asked the rather put out shop assistant.

"Yes I proposed, oh, how long ago was it now Eleanor?"

This comment rendered Sirius a rather dirty look from Ella, but she had decided this game might be fun.

"It was what, two weeks ago now? We've been searching for a ring ever since, but Sirius here won't let me get anything less than exquisite."

* * *

The snow had been falling steadily all day. Ella and Sirius stood against the barrier overlooking the Thames, laughing about their recent ordeal.

"Could you believe the look on her face when you said you didn't approve of the ring because it was too cheap?"

"Well I had to say something or she would have expected me to buy it for you!"

"But did you have to suggest her shop was, hang on how did you put it? 'a sub standard quality for what we require'?"

Sirius and Ella burst out laughing at this stage.

"Well the bitch deserved it. I'm sorry I thought you were being paranoid."

"Ah, forget about it, the jewellery store experience made up for that." Sirius laughed again but did a massive shiver at the same time. He hadn't even thought to buy a jacket even though they had been shopping all day. Ella rolled her eyes at him.

"Did I not say you should put on a coat before we left."

"Yeah but I didn't think it would get this cold."

"It's snowing, how could you think it wouldn't get this cold?"

"Well, I just wanted to get out of the house, and I didn't have my coat that goes with this outfit." Ella looked at him disbelievingly. He could be such a priss sometimes. Sirius looked toward Ella hopefully.

"I could always share your coat…couldn't I?"

"If anyone should be offering a coat it should be you, you're the guy."

"Yes but I am a very cold guy at the moment. Couldn't I at least snuggle?"

Ella snorted with laughter.

"Snuggle?"

"Yeah, like this." Sirius came up behind Ella and slid his hands under the bottom of her coat so his arms were circling her waist underneath. It would have been a beautiful, romantic gesture had he not been shivering uncontrollably and making Ella cold.

"AH your hands are cold, I can even feel them through my jumper!"

"Told you I was freezing!"

"Well you didn't have to make me cold too!"

"Oh stop sooking, we'll warm up soon."

It suddenly occurred to Sirius how close he was to Ella. In his haste for warmth he cuddled close to her, his chest flush with her back. It was the closest they had been since their argument, a topic which Sirius dare not think about at the moment for fear of remembering how much rejection hurts.

"Oh, come here." Ella said, unravelling her scarf and wrapping it around Sirius' neck while they were still entwined.

"Thanks." Sirius said, teeth chattering. His face was cold so he buried it in Ella's shoulder, his nose cold upon her neck now that her scarf was gone. While Ella hadn't reacted at all to his gestures, innocent or not, Sirius couldn't help but relish in the fact that he was extremely comfortable and content at this moment. He could feel her move ever so slightly as she breathed steadily. Sirius wasn't sure if the reason he was warming up was because of Ella's emanating body heat, or his own at the thoughts now running through his head. The vibration through her shoulder as she spoke was taunting him.

"I have a question."

"Shoot."

"Why did you call me Eleanor?" Sirius didn't answer straight away.

"I don't know, I just took a stab that Ella was a nickname for your full name or something."

"Well, you guessed right."

"Ah, so am I allowed to call you Eleanor now?"

"Um, no because that isn't my name."

"But you just said-"

"I meant that you were right about Ella being a nickname."

Sirius shifted so his face was now buried in her neck, his breathing slow, breath warm against her skin as he spoke.

"It strikes me as odd that I'm asking you this after knowing you for so long now, but what exactly is your name?"

"You'll never guess." She said, her voice sounding not exactly normal. Sirius didn't notice much as he was intoxicated by her scent.

"Mmm…Elizabeth?"

"Nope." Sirius held her tighter.

"Elaine?" He asked even more lazily, if that were possible.

"No." Ella replied quietly. Sirius' lips were mere centimetres away from Ella's neck as he spoke. He shifted again and he swore he imagined what he felt. He must have imagined that he could feel her quickly beating pulse beneath her skin.

"Isabella?" He asked, making sure to graze his lips against her skin. It was purely to test his theory. As he felt Ella shake her head to indicate that wasn't her name, he felt it again. Ella's pulse was racing, beating extremely fast beneath her skin. He dare not move for fear of losing her pulse point. She could wear all the vacant expressions she wanted and control her breathing to her desire, but she couldn't control her heartbeat. It was the first sign Sirius received that indicated she did feel something for him. He nuzzled in as close as he could, so as to cherish the moment. If she wasn't going to act upon whatever she felt, he was going to make the most of what he could have with her. If it were possible, her heart raced faster as he did this.

"Do you give up?" She asked quickly.

"Okay, so what is your name?" He asked without trying to contain his grin, even though he knew she could feel him smiling.

"Esmeralda."

His head shot up quickly at this and she turned to meet his gaze, which was quite comical.

"Like the hunchback bloke?"

"Well, no not the hunchback, his lady love, Esmeralda."

"Are you serious?"

"No I just told you, I'm Esmeralda, you're Sirius." Sirius gave her a squeeze at this comment. Somehow they had been around five weeks without reference to the well worn joke.

"Oh shut up, you know what I meant."

"I did, and yes, that is my name. My mum loves those old stories and thought her first daughter should pay homage to her love of them. This short lived tradition ends with me though, my brothers have very boring Welsh names."

Sirius burst out laughing.

"What's so funny?"

"Oh nothing _Esmeralda, _its just that every time I look at you all I'll be thinking now is 'THE BELLS! THE BELLS!'"

Ella swatted Sirius at this comment and pulled away from him.

"For that comment, you can freeze!" Sirius simply laughed and linked his arm with hers.

"Come on, lets go back."

* * *

They took the bus to head back toward Grimmauld Place. After five minutes of driving, Sirius exclaimed.

"Oh, I forgot to give you this." He reached into his pocked and pulled out a small velvet bag.

"What's this?" She asked.

"Well that's why you're supposed to open it Esmeralda."

"You're going to call me that all the time now aren't you?"

"Yep."

Ella didn't even bother rolling her eyes and opened the bag. Inside was a ring, not as elaborate as the one she was looking at in the jewellery store, but a beautiful ring nonetheless. It was a rather heavy, silver piece with a simple scratched pattern and small yellow gem in the middle.

"Sirius, when did you- you shouldn't have, I bet it was far too expensive!"

"Not really, don't worry about it. I got it in a pawn shop while you were looking in that bookshop. Besides, I think my fake fiancé deserves a pretty ring, don't you?"

Ella smiled, and tried the ring on all of her fingers until she found the one that fitted best.

"Look at that, a fake engagement ring fits on my fake wedding ring finger, how appropriate." She commented as the ring slid onto her right ring finger. She looked over at Sirius.

"Thank you, that was really nice of you."

"No problem. At least I know your name now."

* * *

They walked through the back door of Grimmauld place talking and laughing after their very eventful day. This was immediately about to end as they turned around and saw an irate Remus staring them down. Their faces dropped.

"Where the hell have you two been?" Ella was about to answer but Sirius stepped in front of her and beat her to it.

"It was all my idea, we went out for the day."

"Went out? What do you think you two were doing? You could have been spotted, or something could have happened and everything could have been changed!"

Ella attempted to reassure Remus that everything was alright.

"Remus don't worry, nobody even came up to us, they –"

"THAT DOESN'T MEAN PEOPLE DIDN'T SEE YOU."

"DON'T YELL AT HER! I told you it was my idea!" Sirius yelled back.

"Well that was obvious, only you would be so reckless! And you're no better, following him along!" He added to Ella.

"You know what, yell at me all you want but keep Ella out of this!"

"Sirius, I can take care of myself –"

"Just go upstairs, I'll deal with this. Like I said, it was my idea."

"But-" Sirius sent her a look which clearly meant not to mess with him at this moment. She stared back just as hard. Sirius rolled his eyes.

"Fine then, we'll go into the lounge room." And before she could protest, Sirius had dragged Remus into the lounge room and slammed the door in her face.

"Sirius-"

"Look, before you start just hear my side of the story okay?" He didn't wait for Remus to respond and simply continued. "You have no idea what it's like being stuck in here, in this fucking satanic house for over five weeks. I vowed NEVER to come back here again and yet here I am, only to find out I'm dead along with my best friend, have no family and no future! And what's worse, I have to go back and go through it all again!"

"I don't-"

"IM NOT FINISHED! It's not only me, Ella's been stuck here too and I'm sure it's just as bad for her, I mean who the fuck would want to stay here? At least I had you to come tell me about everything; she knows absolutely nothing! She's been stuck here trying to find out what happened to her and had no contact with her family or friends while everyone keeps telling her it will all be okay when they don't fucking know anything. We just had to get away from it for one day, and nothing happened, well apart from her cracking the shits at a shop assistant, and it's not like people would recognise us from Hogwarts, I mean we're fucking dead for Merlin's sake!"

Sirius hardly remembered what he was yelling about but he was sure he made his point clear. Remus stood there, rubbing the back of his neck.

"So what is it, you're in love with Ella?" Sirius' head shot up and stared at Remus as though he was crazy.

"How – why do you think that?"

"You always acted this way when you were interested in someone. Defend them, do something to make them feel special."

"Yeah, well it doesn't mean I'm in love with her." Sirius mumbled.

"Then what does it mean?"

"That I like her, and now we have to go back and I'll never find out what could have happened."

Remus looked as though he was going to say something but stopped himself before the words left his mouth.

"Despite all this, what you did was extremely reckless and irresponsible."

"Reckless and irresponsible mean the same thing." Sirius corrected automatically.

"I suppose you're right."

There was a light knock at the door and Ella entered with a tray of tea and scones.

"Ah, the yelling stopped so I thought it would be safe to come in." She said timidly. She gingerly placed the tray on the coffee table and joined Sirius on the couch. She looked pleadingly to Remus.

"I'm so sorry Remus, we just needed to get out of here and we-"

"It's alright Ella, Sirius has informed me. Apparently no harm came to you both so I will not discuss the matter further."

"Oh well in that case, did you want to see the ring Sirius got me?" She asked as held her right hand out for Remus to inspect. Remus raised his eyebrow at the ring, then at Sirius.

"You bought her a ring?"

"Yeah you see the thing is, we were pretending to be engaged and you can't pretend to be engaged without a ring, so I went and got that ring – "

"You were pretending to be engaged?" Remus was mightily confused. Sirius must have been, well, serious about liking Ella.

* * *

Ella woke the next morning to a delicious smell wafting up the stairs. The smell could only mean one thing; pancakes. But not just regular pancakes, Sirius' pancakes. She rushed into the kitchen, clad in her pyjamas and exclaimed,

"YOU MADE PANCAKES!"

"I KNOW!" Sirius shouted back, spatula in hand.

"I'll set the table." Ella quickly rushed around the kitchen finding all the jams and spreads she could, then she ventured to the fridge to get fresh cream. After setting the table, she sat down, impatiently circling the ring on her finger.

"Oh come on, there's a whole stack there, can't I just have one?"

"No, you've got to wait for the whole lot to be done, you know that."

"Well maybe I wouldn't be so impatient if you didn't have to be so pedantic about setting up the stack perfectly."

"Appearances are everything! That's why my pancakes are so damn good."

"Well just hurry up."

"I'm on the last one now."

Once the stack was complete, Sirius placed them on the table and Ella immediately took the first couple of layers. Sirius stared as Ella with his mouth open.

"You know, when you eat, you really are not very ladylike." Ella had to wait to swallow her mouthful before she answered.

"Well compared to you, I never was ladylike, you would have to be the most feminine bloke I've ever met."

"And yet the ladies still find me charming, funny that isn't it?" He retorted, shovelling pancakes into his own mouth.

Their banter continued until the stack was gone. Ella looked to Sirius, her eyes pleading. Sirius rolled his eyes back at her.

"All right, I'll make you some more. I swear, with how many pancakes you devour you should be the size of a house."

"Well lucky you don't make your pancakes too often then isn't it?"

"Well you certainly make me suffer when I do. Do you deliberately make me slave over a hot stove or do you just like tormenting me?"

Sirius had returned to the stove and turned it on, while Ella followed him with her dishes.

"No, it's simply because you are the best pancake maker around." Ella stated casually, and, without realising it, gave Sirius a quick peck on the lips out of appreciation.

As soon as she did this, she realised she had done something wrong. She turned quickly, avoiding his gaze and busied herself with arranging her knife and fork on her plate carefully. Sirius still hadn't moved. He was in shock. For weeks he had waited for a moment like this and finally, it had happened. Ella had kissed him. He knew it hadn't meant much but it gave him all the confidence he needed to initiate something more although this didn't mean he wasn't scared shitless of the outcome. He lightly touched her on the arm and she reluctantly looked his way. He continued to stare at her. Ella was sure she had never seen him this nervous before as she saw his eyes dart quickly over her face. Still grasping her arm, Sirius leant toward Ella, pausing halfway as if re-thinking his decision. Ella hadn't moved. Eventually, their lips made contact. It was short and sweet. Sirius had pulled away to gauge Ella's reaction. As he predicted, her face was impassive.

That was until she ran her hand over his cheek to eventually rest upon his neck. She did this with unnecessary slowness. To Sirius, it was torture. Fortunately, his second burst of confidence came as he looked into her eyes. She stared straight back at him, but every now and then her gaze flicked between Sirius' grey eyes to his inviting lips. Her head motioned forward. It was all the encouragement Sirius needed. He closed the gap briskly, taking her top lip between his own. He kissed her slowly, luxuriously, lazily. He had fantasised about this moment for weeks now. He felt no need to rush. His arms snaked around her waist as he continued to kiss her with all the tenderness he possessed. Ella continued to return his kisses with equal tenderness, slowly running her lips across his. It wasn't exactly how she imagined kissing Sirius Black would be. She had envisioned passion and burning lust rather than a sweet, romantic kiss. She decided it was up to her to change this. She closed the gap between them. Her hands laboriously made their way beneath the comfort of Sirius' black shirt which was untucked from his jeans. The sudden sensation of Ella's hands on his skin made Sirius' eyes open wide. He was overcome with a sudden feeling of desire, one which was gladly reciprocated. Their bodies were now pressed firmly against the other's, kisses becoming more and more desperate and needy as time continued. They were suddenly aware that the kitchen was not the most appropriate destination for a make out session. As their kisses became more heated, Ella running her tongue across Sirius' bottom lip, they made the slow journey toward the kitchen door. Destination: Lounge room sofa.

By the time they reached the door, Ella had succeeded in deepening the kiss, Sirius responding with sheer audacity. They barely had time to breathe as the other ran their hands through the other's hair while their unoccupied hands ran up and down each other's bodies with antagonising slowness. Their kisses had become quick and fierce. Only when Sirius' body pressed flush against Ella's did they realise that they had reached the door. Sirius' hand untangled from Ella's now cropped locks to use the door handle. He was expecting to push the door open, but only managed to press himself further into Ella. He tried the doorknob again, to no avail. He made a frustrated whimper. Ella pulled her lips away from Sirius' just enough to murmer,

"You have to pull."

"Hmm?" He answered, as he reclaimed her lips. The vibration as she spoke was far too pleasurable to ignore. It took every ounce of Ella's self control to pull away again.

"The door opens the other way." She finally managed. Sirius, his forehead resting against Ella's, stared into her eyes, his breath pleasantly mingling with her own. It took him a whole three seconds to figure out that she meant he would have to open to door the other way in order to escape the confines of the kitchen. As soon as he opened the door, Sirius saw Remus appear at the bottom of the stairs and wished, for the first time in his life, that he could curse his friend.

Sirius quickly slammed the door shut and Ella captured his mouth again.

"Mmm." He stated.

"Hmm?" Ella replied. He didn't want to let her go but he knew Remus was no doubt about to enter the kitchen.

"Remus – awake." He managed to get out while Ella was still so close. Ella pulled away.

"Fuck." She exclaimed, still staring at Sirius' mouth. He smirked at her and pulled her close again.

"Did Esmeralda Powell just swear?"

"Damn right I did." Sirius was about to kiss her again but Ella squeaked. The door handle was turning. Ella ran back to the table while Sirius occupied himself toward the stove. Ella turned to Sirius, looked down, and squeaked again.

"What?" He said, looking everywhere for the source of her panic. He soon realised. His jeans were tight but apparently not tight enough.

_Fuck, okay, Dumbledore and McGonagall making out…nope, not working…Peter naked…shit…um…um…_

The door had opened and Remus was now in the kitchen with them. Luckily he greeted Ella first and didn't notice Sirius having a breakdown at the stove.

_Stove! _Sirius thought and slammed his hand on the hot filament.

"Fuck!" Came his exclamation. His hand was now rather burnt, but as he shook it to get rid of the horrible sensation, all he was thinking was; _thank Merlin that worked!_

* * *

**A/N: **So that was...well that!!! What did you think? I know it's a little choppy, but their day was particularly eventful and i wanted it all to be in one chapter. Hopefully the way Sirius and Ella finally got together was believable (told you ella would have a weak moment!!!) and hopefully it was written okay. Oh, and as for Sirius' behaviour (ie. not ignoring Ella or moping around), just know that he felt extremely guilty for what he said to her the previous night so was trying to make it up to her! Were any of you even wondering why the story was called 'the bells'? Well, even if you didn't, now you know!!!

THANK YOU SO MUCH TO MY REVIEWERS!!! You guys are like sunshine on an otherwise cloudy day...or rather an email in an otherwise empty inbox!!! I love your feedback (and also love how long some reviews have been...i enjoy reading them) so review away!!! Stay tuned because, unfortunately, Ella and Sirius have to go back soon and the plot kicks off again!!!


	12. Back to Basics

**Disclaimer: **Although this particular story is mine, clearly it stems from JK Rowling's Harry Potter universe so, please don't sue me.

* * *

**Chapter 12: Back to Basics**

Sirius couldn't believe it. Ella was being so cool. Remus simply wouldn't be able to tell that they had been locked in a passionate embrace just moments before. If he looked toward Sirius though, Remus was sure to know something wasn't quite right. Sirius' eyes kept darting over to Ella; his leg was constantly jiggling under the table; and he kept laughing nervously whenever Remus or Ella looked in his direction. He sat there not hearing a word either of them said, constantly going through scenarios in his head of what may have happened if Remus hadn't woken up and decided to come into the kitchen. Luckily he had his now burnt hand to blame his strange behaviour on. The stinging was a welcome distraction when his mind wandered to what had just transpired.

"Isn't that right Sirius?" Sirius vaguely heard his name being called by a welcome female voice.

"Uh, what?" He asked Ella, daring himself to look her in the eye. Her face was passive but her eyes were smiling. No, not smiling; smirking.

_That bitch, _he thought.

"I was just saying that we, I mean, you, figured out about the time turner sand in the urn."

"Yeah but it was you who figured out that-"

Sirius stopped talking abruptly when his foot was stomped on. While he couldn't tell from the look on her face, he knew it was Ella who had crushed his foot. He barely contained his pained expression. It didn't help that he had no idea why she made him stop speaking.

"Is your hand hurting?" Ella asked, giving him an out.

"You could say it _suddenly_ started hurting again, yes," he said with a scowl.

"I'll go get something for it," Ella replied, genuinely worried about the state of his hand.

* * *

By the time Ella returned with the medical kit, Sirius and Remus were in a discussion about some prank they had pulled in their time at Hogwarts. Ella took the seat next to Sirius and saw him tense. She smiled inwardly and took his right hand which now had a large circular welt on it. His hand was so warm.

_Of course it's warm you idiot, it's been burnt! _Ella chided herself.

Sirius flinched as she began to clean his wound. The story he was telling Remus was quickly fading into the background and eventually he stopped talking all together. Ella was too busy fussing over the hand and Sirius was too busy trying to ignore what she was doing that both of them didn't see the knowing look from Remus as he finished his coffee quickly.

"I think I'll be off to the study, I've got a few things I have to take care of for Dumbledore."

He barely got recognition as he left the room, the others being too involved in the task at hand. As the door closed, Sirius finally dared to look at Ella again.

"Esmeralda, why do you insist on torturing me?" He asked with a glare. Ella was quite pleased with herself. She never knew it was so easy to have Sirius Black wrapped around her little finger. She was reminded of the muggle movies she saw where the burly man is injured and the damsel comes along to tend to his wounds, only to make the man swoon.

"Whatever do you mean? How am I torturing you?" She asked in return as she begun applying a potent cream to his burns.

"Are you serious? My hand fucking hurts, which is your fault by the way-" Ella smirked at this, "-and now you insist on putting me through excruciating pain! I tell you, I'm liking you less and less the more you try to heal me."

Ella was disappointed with his answer. Apparently he wasn't tortured by her tending to him and being so close, but because she was literally causing him physical pain rather than metaphorically causing him emotional pain. After figuring this out, she got rather defensive.

"Well I didn't tell you to put your hand on a burning stove now did I? You're the genius who did that all by yourself. Hot things burn, I thought you would know that by now."

"If I didn't know it before I fucking know it now! You could have given me more warning that Remus was coming."

"Do you realise you have ruined a potentially romantic situation here by your incessant whinging?" Ella replied shortly as she began bandaging Sirius' hand. Sirius looked at the expression on her face and he grinned.

"Sweet Merlin, is that a pout I see? You're sulking!"

"I am _not _sulking!"

"Could have fooled me. You know sulking-"

"-really doesn't suit me? Nothing suits me according to you. And I'm not sulking."

"I was actually going to say you look cute when you sulk. Slightly pathetic, but cute."

"Gee thanks." Ella mumbled as she put the finishing touches on the bandage.

"You should be all healed up by tomorrow morning," she said as she packed up the medical kit. She got up to leave the room, medical kit in hand, but Sirius followed her anyway.

"So tell me, why were you sulking?" He asked, feigning ignorance. They reached the hallway cupboard where Ella packed away the kit, without turning to Sirius.

"For the last time, I'm not sulking!"

"Well _now_ you're not. _Now_ you're just aggro. You said I ruined a potentially romantic situation. Were you hoping something would happen when Remus left? Considering he interrupted a very interesting situation by entering the kitchen in the first place."

Sirius could see Ella getting even more irked as he continued. He loved that he could provoke such anger in her. As they entered the lounge room (where Ella tried to shut the door on Sirius) she finally turned to him.

"Okay if you must know you are irritating the shit out of me at the moment. You with your whinging and your questioning and stupid burnt hand!" Sirius simply tilted his head to the side.

"You know, I have never seen you get angry with anyone but me."

"Congratulations, you are able to piss me off better than anyone. You should be proud."

At this comment, Sirius went up to Ella and snaked his arms about her waist. He had to fight back a laugh as she stood there, clearly not about to reciprocate the embrace as her arms were still crossed and her face looking anywhere but at him.

"I am proud. You know, for someone who rarely shows emotion on the outside, you are doing a great job at ignoring me and pouting."

Ella finally looked at him disbelievingly.

"You think insulting me will make me feel better?"

"Yep. I think it's working already!" He said as he saw her mouth twitch.

"Well you're wrong." Despite what she was saying, she uncrossed her arms and rested them on Sirius' shoulders.

"Believe me, if I wasn't in so much pain, I would have kissed you. I'm sure if I had of kissed you while I was being tortured, it would make me some kind of masochist and that just seems wrong."

"It really hurt that much?" Ella asked, finally looking at him. His head moved closer and he nodded.

"Yep. And I may have been pissed off at you for acting so cool and un-suspicious when I was all fidgety and freaking out."

"And deliberately burnt yourself."

"Exactly."

"Well this will teach you not to be so stupid next time." Ella said and gave him a long, slow kiss. It was a sweet kiss, significant of the bond they had formed together over the weeks rather than the passion which was instilled in them an hour before. As they pulled away, Sirius was the first to speak.

"You've got to stop doing that."

"What, kissing you?"

"Yes!" Ella was slightly put out by his remark but listened as he continued. "And before you get cranky on me again, I just mean that you always start the kiss. You've got to let me be manly and take charge for once! I'm too feminine as it is, let me be manly! This is all I have!" As Sirius said this, Ella kissed him again.

"Noooo, you're not listening, let _me _kiss _you,_" he said, sounding rather childish.

Ella sighed and rolled her eyes, waiting for Sirius to kiss her. He led her to the couch and they sat down exactly as they had on their night of dancing, sound of music and alcohol. Their heads rested on the back cushion, facing each other. Sirius finally leant in, not quite touching her lips but remaining close enough to feel the small puffs of air as Ella exhaled, anticipating the kiss. It was his turn to torture her. Ella's eyes opened, puzzled at what he was doing. Instead of waiting, she leant in to him but Sirius leant away, smiling and shaking his head ever so slightly. Ella rolled her eyes again. He was getting sick of playing hard to get and was about to just kiss her but then had a better idea. He leant down to where her collarbone met the curve of her neck and lightly grazed his lips against her skin as he did at the Thames. Ella inhaled quickly, not expecting the strange sensation to have such an impact on her. Sirius slowly trailed light kisses up her neck and jaw until he came to her mouth again. This time he didn't hesitate as he was also breathing rather quickly and kissed her hard.

* * *

They hadn't kissed for long, as both of them remembered Remus was still in the house and could walk in at any moment. Instead they lay on the couch, Ella on her back and Sirius on his side, pressed against the back cushion while his head lay on her shoulder. They had been quiet for a while, enjoying the silence for once. Sirius broke the silence after a certain thought niggled at him.

"Why did you slam my foot earlier?"

"You were about to say that we'd found a way back."

"Yeah, so?"

"If we'd told Remus that we'd found a way back, he would help us out, find out how I died, figured out where Bellatrix was so she could off you again."

"But I thought you wanted to know what happened?"

"I do, but if we told Remus, he would find out somehow, I would finally know and we would be leaving even sooner and we wouldn't get to spend as much time together."

Sirius was looking at her disbelievingly. He smiled.

"When you say things like that, I can't believe I ever doubted that you liked me."

"Since when have you _ever _doubted that a girl liked you?"

"You'd be surprised."

* * *

Their week was full of stolen kisses and night time canoodling as they tried to avoid Remus. It wasn't that they didn't want to tell him or that he would be disapproving, it was merely because having a 'secret' relationship seemed rather exciting, considering they were still confined to the house. It never crossed either of their minds that Remus could quite easily have figured out what was going on, especially when they saw him coming down the hall and hid in the linen cupboard only to return half an hour later looking rather ruffled. Remus figured they would tell him when they were ready. Or they had a fight or got sick of each other and needed to bitch about the other one. As it turned out, there was never time to get sick of each other as the couple's excitement was dampened completely by Sunday morning, not of their own volition.

* * *

Ella woke up thinking she had made it back to her time. Surrounding her were the maroon and gold bed hangings of her dorm room, accompanied by Gryffindor insignia on the walls. What was a tad bizarre was the picture of a muggle bikini model and numerous posters of motorbikes. She felt slightly guilty at the wave of relief which flowed through her as it finally dawned on her that she was in Sirius' room, not her dorm room, and she was in fact still in the future.

"Stop moving," came Sirius' mumbled voice. To prevent Ella moving further, he rolled over and pinned her with his arm as his head resumed its favourite position buried in her neck. Ella was now wide awake and found it rather boring laying there with nothing to do so she occupied herself by tracing figures on Sirius' bare back. After ten minutes of this, Sirius realised she wouldn't let him sleep. Whether she knew she was keeping him awake or not, he didn't know.

"If you insist on writing my name, use parchment, not my back," he mumbled against her.

"How could you tell I was writing your name?"

"I'm magic. After you spend your life writing your own name, you tend to recognise it when someone writes it on you for half an hour straight." He appeared tired and grumpy.

"And here I was thinking you were a morning person. You're always so chipper during breakfast at school."

"That's because there's food, and besides, I'm comfortable and was planning to spend the day in this exact position."

"Well I think my dead arm would have something to say against that."

"How? Your arm can't talk."

"Oh shut up," Ella retorted and she felt Sirius smile against her neck. "Why don't you go get breakfast if you think it will make you feel happier?"

"Why don't you get it for me?"

"Because I'm not hungry and I can't move with you pinning me down."

Sirius did a strange growling whine and lifted himself up a little. His hair was very unruly and his eyes were still half closed. He quickly kissed Ella on the lips.

"Fine then, I'm going to get breakfast," he said and he made himself get out of bed.

"While you're going to get breakfast for yourself, could you whip me up something?" Ella asked innocently. Sirius threw the pillow at her.

"As long as you were expecting toast or cereal, then fine."

"What, no pancakes?"

"No," he said bluntly.

"Geez, just go already, you need breakfast quick smart, you're so grumpy!" Ella said with a smirk. Sirius gave her the finger before he closed the door.

Ella couldn't believe how comfortable she had become with Sirius, even before they had 'gotten together' so to speak. She thought back to detention when she was so worried about what they would talk about to break the awkward silence, and then to all the times after that when she had felt extremely uncomfortable in his presence. Ella figured there was no specific reason for her coming along with Sirius to the future, but it was worth it to get to know him properly. She just had to enjoy the time they had together, and try not to think about the fact that he was pretty 'into' Miranda before they got to the current time. It seemed to be taking Sirius a while to get breakfast organised which Ella hoped was a sign that he was making his famous pancakes again. Unfortunately Sirius entered his room with no breakfast, but managed to bring a solemn expression with him instead.

"What? What's wrong?"

"We need to get dressed and go downstairs."

Ella asked no questions and quickly got out of bed. She made sure to hug Sirius as she left his room to get out of her pyjamas. She didn't expect him to hug her as hard as he did which scared her.

* * *

Ella got dressed and exited her room. Sirius was waiting for her at the top of the stairs. She still didn't ask questions, his expression almost forbade it. He made sure to grasp her hand in his as they descended the stairs, an action which further worried Ella.

As they reached the lounge room door, Sirius let go of Ella's hand and led her into the room.

They were greeted by everyone; Molly and Arthur; Harry, Ron, Hermione and Ginny; Fred and George; Kingsley, Moody, Tonks and of course Remus. The most remarkable presence was that of Albus Dumbledore, standing with arms outstretched in robes of royal blue.

Ella was immediately engulfed in a hug by Molly while Harry and his friends gathered around her and Sirius for a chat, which wasn't very successful due to Ella's overpowering sense of foreboding. After around 10 minutes of unsuccessful conversation, Dumbledore finally spoke up.

"Sirius, Miss Powell, please sit," he said, motioning toward the couch. Not caring for appearances anymore, Sirius made sure to grab hold of Ella's hand as they sat down. Ron raised his eyebrows at this gesture but no one else noticed as Dumbledore's presence seemed to demand attention.

"I suppose you are wondering why I have gathered everyone here?" he directed this question at Ella and Sirius. All they could do was nod.

"I have it on good authority that you both have worked together to find a way back, and I believe the method in which you have discovered will be very successful indeed. However, I feel the manner in which you go about getting back should be as risk free as possible while posing the littlest threat to your own lives."

"We've heard all this Albus, but how do they – pass on – with as little danger possible I would like to know?" Molly interrupted. It seemed everyone had been informed about Ella and Sirius' discovery.

"We thought it would be best to go in the same way that we originally did, so the loop or whatever it is, could be stronger and more realistic." Ella spoke up, surprising herself.

"NO! I will not have that Bellatrix coming near this family again! There has to be another way," Molly argued.

"Which is why I have figured out a plan that, as I said, is as risk free as possible while posing no immediate threat to both Sirius and Miss Powell."

Dumbledore paused, as if expecting another interruption. When no one objected, he continued.

"It occurred to me just last night that we could use an object which was involved in Sirius' original death." He paused again, but this time, someone did speak.

"Of course! The veil!" Hermione said, rather loudly. Looks of comprehension dawned on Harry and Ron's faces. Ella felt that Dumbledore had thought of the veil much sooner than the previous night, which gave her the sneaking suspicion that the old codger may have deliberately given them more time than was necessary.

"Veil?" Sirius and Ella said in unison.

"Precisely. When you died Sirius, it was in a particular room of the Department of Mysteries labelled the 'death chamber'. It is a rather unimpressive room apart from a dais, on which stands an archway with a veil. It is believed this veil acts as a doorway to the other side; a doorway to death if you please. After you were attacked Sirius, you fell through this veil, meaning that even if your cousin's spell did not affect you, you would most certainly have crossed over to the other side as that is what this veil is made for."

It made sense to Ella and Sirius. Sort of.

"So what you're saying is that we go to the Ministry, break in to the Department of Mysteries, find this room and the archway thingy and poof! We're back to our old lives?"

"That is the plan, yes Sirius."

Sirius and Ella looked at one another a moment. Ella squeezed his hand ever so slightly; a private gesture of encouragement and comfort. Sirius looked back to Dumbledore.

"And when is the best time to do this?" He asked, already knowing the answer. Why else would everyone have come here today?

"Today. Or Tonight rather. The ministry has improved their security which means we will have today to prepare you both for what is in store and by tonight, you shall be in the death chamber and cross over to get back to your time."

"Okay." Came Sirius' reply.

* * *

Being filled in on the procedure of getting into the Ministry took several hours. By the time the plan was finalised, Sirius and Ella were given only a couple of hours to say goodbye to everyone who had gathered in Grimmauld Place. This process seemed to be the least difficult for Sirius and Ella.

Hermione was beside herself, trying to talk conversationally but sniffing and hiccuping every now and then, indicating how upset she was. Ella made sure to tell Ron to go comfort Hermione when she left to go to the toilet.

"I'm not going to follow her to the toilet, Ella!" Ron had protested.

"But she's not in the toilet, she'll be in my room."

"But she said she was-"

"I know what she said, but she was lying. Just go up to my room and make sure she's okay could you please?" She asked and Ron obeyed.

Molly was in a similar state, fussing over their clothes and hair while constantly bursting into tears. George had told his mother that if she didn't stop crying soon, she would not only flood the house, but make sure London became an underwater Atlantis.

Harry and Remus were very quiet. The time had finally come for them to say goodbye to Sirius again and neither of them thought they could cope, knowing that this was finally it. Sirius noticed this and made sure to give Remus a lecture on treating his baby cousin right (while making it known that he still found it very weird) while Harry received a lecture on proper 'marauding'. He couldn't bring himself to say to them what he really felt, so kept to light territory.

Fred and George were probably the most normal, laughing and joking around.

"I don't know what you're all so sombre about! Anyone would walk in and think someone had died or something!"

Despite how insensitive their mother said this was, Ella and Sirius found this hilarious and couldn't stop themselves laughing at everyone's horrified expressions.

* * *

It had come time to say their final goodbyes. Unconsciously, everyone had formed a line and made sure to bid farewell to both Ella and Sirius. Ella surprised herself and remained dry eyed throughout the ordeal while Sirius only felt he was going to crack when he had to say goodbye to Remus. He wasn't quite sure why considering he would go back and see his friend at school, he arrived at the solution that he was sad for his friend who again would be left alone. It was for this reason Sirius said his final words to him.

"You know, despite being completely grossed out before, I want you to know that I approve of you and Nymphie. You deserve someone mate." Remus smiled and shook his head.

"Thanks. Suppose I'll see you on the other side."

"Suppose we will." And they shared a brief hug. Tonks came up and linked her arm with Remus'. Sirius looked toward her and winked. She winked back.

As Sirius had finished saying his goodbyes, he waited as Ella was hugging Hermione and trying to console her. Sirius felt the same pang he felt that morning when he walked into the kitchen which was full of people he had met during his time at Grimmauld place. It seemed unfair that he only had a week with Ella and that they had to go with such little warning. Ella was now being hugged by Molly who was still fussing over the girl's appearance and making sure she promised to take care of herself. Finally, Molly let her go and the lounge room was now a murmur of voices with the occasional sniffing noise. Ella stood back slightly, letting the situation wash over her. She was going home. She would see her family and friends again. But she wouldn't get to see Sirius again. Well, that was a lie, she would see him almost everyday but not on the same level she did in this time. She didn't really know why she was so depressed about this fact; not remembering meant you didn't remember _anything_ so it would never even cross her mind what she could have had with Sirius. She reassured herself by thinking that it was best to leave something before it was tainted anyway, and technically she was 'the other woman' considering Sirius actually had a girlfriend so maybe it was all for the best. This didn't stop her almost breaking down when she looked at him though.

Sirius was standing slightly apart from the group, just as Ella had, and saw her walking over to him. Ella had kept it together through every goodbye but when Sirius hugged her, she let a sob escape. While Ella was now silent, Sirius could tell she was still crying. It wasn't hard to tell as her body would shudder every now and then, and if this didn't give her away, the fact that his shoulder was becoming wet surely would. He tried to gently pry her off his shoulder so he could look at her face but she wouldn't let him and buried further into his body. Sirius decided to go a different tactic.

"I know I've never actually seen you cry, but I've seen the aftermath and it ain't pretty," he mumbled into her ear. Her response was a light hit to his chest and a shudder of giggles. She still didn't move her head though.

"Seriously, I'm not good with crying girls, you have to stop before I get too awkward and you get too puffy."

While he couldn't see her face, he knew instinctively that she was rolling her eyes at him. She moved away slightly so he could see her face. He brushed aside the mass of hair now covering her face and wiped her tears away.

"There you are," he said gently, "told you crying makes you puffy."

"Shut up," she said quietly and hit him again.

"So does this mean I'm the only one who you'll cry and get angry in front of?"

"Don't flatter yourself, all my friends have seen me cry."

"So I _am _your friend?"

"Of course you are you stupid boy." Sirius laughed.

"Esmeralda Powell, I'm gunna miss you."

"No you won't, you won't even remember me."

"Yeah I know, that's the only reason I said it."

Ella hit him again and hugged him tight. As she did so, she felt Sirius' hand leave her side but return shortly after. She never saw him quickly wipe at his eyes. He held her tighter, then leant down to whisper in her ear.

"If I said I loved you I'd be lying, but believe me when I say that I want nothing more than to go back and remember you. It just sucks that we'll never get to know what could have happened and I know I sound as corny as hell right now so you better not tell anyone what I'm saying, but I really think that if I had gotten to know you even more, I could have fell for you completely."

Ella sniffed again.

"You're right, that is corny. But I know what you mean."

Sirius replied by giving her a quick kiss. He wasn't planning the kiss to be quick but the mutterings and gasps from the other occupants of the room (and wolf whistles from Fred and George) made him remember they were not alone. Dumbledore's light cough turned the attention away from the couple.

"I believe it is time to go," he said, smiling in his knowing way.

Sirius broke apart from Ella a little awkwardly, but still kept hold of her hand. There was a sudden rush of hugs and farewells and a few outbursts of 'why didn't you tell us?' mostly from Ginny who was annoyed at not having this juicy gossip.

Kingsley, Moody, Arthur and Dumbledore were waiting at the front door to direct Ella and Sirius to the Ministry. Everyone crowded in the hallway; a sombre leaving committee.

"Thanks. For everything." Ella said to the group.

"My pleasure dear," Molly answered. Ella exited first with a wave while Sirius stuck close behind her. Before he left, he turned and smiled at Harry.

"Don't get up to too much mischief ey?" Harry smiled back.

"Never."

* * *

The house seemed empty as soon as the two time travellers disappeared. Ron was the one to break the long silence as he looked at Hermione's expression. 

"You alright Hermione?" he asked.

"Sirius called Ella 'Esmeralda'," she said with a quizzical look on her face.

"Yeah, so?" Ron answered.

"That means her name isn't Ella, but Esmeralda."

"Yeah, what's your point?"

"It's just that I've met an Esmeralda Powell. She was one of my parent's clients and come to think of it, she bore an uncanny resemblance to Ella."

"So Ella's still alive then? That means-"

"No, Harry. Esmeralda Powell, um, died last year. Mum and dad went to her funeral, and it was all in the papers. Apparently she blacked out while driving."

"How do you know it was our Ella?"

"Tall. Dark hair. Welsh. It was Ella but, older."

There was a pause.

"But, didn't Kingsley try to find out what happened to her? He couldn't find anything."

"It was in the muggle papers, Kingsley only checked wizarding records."

"But, if it's the same Ella, why was she pretending to be a muggle?"

"I think I may know why. It's just a hunch, but it would explain a lot."

* * *

**A/N: **Okay, please don't kill me... I never said that the way Ella died would be elaborate or exotic or even of any importance, but now you know...and are probably wanting to kill me because knowing about her death really didn't give you the information you were after...believe me, that comes later!!! Again, this chapter had to cover a lot so I feel its a little choppy again, but I really needed to continue with the plot, otherwise the story will be 50 chapters long and you wouldn't find anything out lol.

Possible questions: Will Sirius and Ella return to their time? What will become of their relationship? Will we find out what Remus' hunch is? What do you think of Ella as a character? (this question is purely for my benefit, i would love to know what you think of her)...And of course I am willing to answer any questions you have for me!!!

Now you have read, would you be so kind to review? THANK YOU so much to all the reviewers...it has been so exciting reading your reviews and they are getting longer which is great! I always love to know what you think...especially chapters like these where i am still having doubts lol...


	13. Flash

**Disclaimer: **I don't know if i can think of any more elaborate ways to say HP doesn't belong to me!!!

* * *

**Chapter 13: Flash**

It was easier to get into the Ministry than they had planned. The floo network was being closely monitored and it would have looked suspicious if the flames had turned green when Ella and Sirius arrived, as they were covered with Harry's invisibility cloak. It was for this reason that Kingsley and Arthur lead them into the Ministry via the telephone box entrance. Moody was already inside his office, waiting for his visitors. Passing the guards at the entrance to the atrium proved simple but nerve wracking, especially for the unwelcome invisible visitors.

"Alright Kingsley? Wha' you doin' ere so late? An' wif the likes of this one?" The guard asked pointedly, motioning toward Arthur. Arthur scowled at him in return.

"I don't believe the Minister would approve of me divulging official information to you Nigel. Weasley is here as I require his expertise in a matter, end of story." Kingsley replied in his authoritative voice.

"Fair enuf then. No need to get stroppy. Ah, could you not tell the Minister I asked 'bout wha' yer up to? I'm in a bit 'o strife as it is."

"Tell no one you saw us and I shall tell no one about your indiscretion."

"Righto then," said Nigel and turned away from the group to resume his guard duties. Having not liked the way Nigel commented about Arthur, Sirius thought he would take advantage of his invisibility to send a jinx toward the guard. He heard a yelp and then a thud as Nigel was tripped up by his own foot. On trying to make himself upright again, Nigel's feet continually slid out from underneath him. Sirius and Ella were giggling silently under the cloak while Kingsley and Arthur were oblivious to the joke. As they reached the lift, their giggling had ceased and the sombre mood returned. Kingsley quickly wrote a message to Mad-Eye on a piece of light violet paper, which immediately formed itself into an enchanted aeroplane to be sent to its subject.

Under the cover of his best friend's cloak, Sirius had his first pang of homesickness in over a week. While he had been thinking about leaving memories of Ella behind, he forgot just how much he valued his friends and how much it had hurt to know that one friend was dead, one friend had betrayed them all and the remaining friend had been changed almost beyond recognition. While only quick lasting, Sirius longed for ignorance again; to be able to wake up every morning not knowing that his life would result in tragedy and ultimately, betrayal and murder. He hoped that when he returned, he would regain his sense of confidence that he would do something with his life and that he would be free of his family's clutches and fight for what he believed in. He even hoped that Miranda was still waiting for him because if she was, and he returned willingly to her, then that would mean there was no chance of remembering what he wished now he could have. It would mean everything would be back to normal.

The lift stopped at the bottommost level of the ministry and the doors opened onto a dark, long corridor. The temperature seemed to drop five degrees as they exited the lift. Upon reaching the furthest door, they awaited Mad-Eye's arrival who would have since received his office memo from Kingsley to meet them. Sirius was about to take the invisibility cloak off him and Ella but Arthur put his hand up, signalling to keep it on.

"You never know who might come down here. Keep it on until we go through this door."

* * *

They waited around ten minutes, jumping at every little sound. Finally, the lift doors opened and they heard the familiar clunk of Mad-Eye's wooden leg as he traipsed down the long corridor. He gave a curt nod to the two men standing before him, then his magical blue eye spotted Ella and Sirius and he repeated the gesture in their direction.

"Well, let's get this over with. No point standing out here," he announced, then swiftly opened the door to the Department of Mysteries.

As they entered the circular room, the walls immediately began to turn around them. Sirius ripped of the cloak so he and Ella were visible.

All he could think about was the room which had been described to him; the death chamber. He had no idea how long it would take to find this room, given the dozen doors spinning around them. As the room came to an abrupt halt, one door stood before them and opened itself.

"Good to see everyone's minds were on the job, well done," Mad-Eye proclaimed. Sirius figured as everyone was thinking of the same destination, the room obliged their wishes and found them the right entrance. He was almost wishing it had taken longer. He saw the archway below them, raised in the centre of the sunken room.

As they descended the large concrete steps to the dais, the veil rippled almost mockingly in an absent breeze. As they stood in front of the archway, Sirius turned away from it and glanced at the raised concrete levels. He could almost imagine the battle raging around him, as Remus had explained; his cousin laughing maniacally as she sent curse after curse at him. Sirius could almost feel the rush of excitement he would have felt during such a duel, his cousin's attempts at pruning the Black family tree continually being thwarted…until a lucky hit; the final hit. Sirius felt himself leaning backwards toward the veil, as he knew he did in his final moments. A sense of dread, fear and strangely, calmness overcame him. After everything he knew his older self had been through in his life, Sirius knew that the calmness would have arisen from it finally being over; to have died fighting for what he believed in and no longer suffer the great losses that the world seemed to offer him. Before he lost balance completely and faded prematurely into the veil and beyond, a set of hands ensured he stayed in this world a while longer.

"Sirius, Sirius are you okay?" came Ella's urgent voice. Sirius was brought back to reality once more.

"Oh, sorry. Was having some sort of flashback…or flashforward. Some sort of flashing experience anyway."

"Well if you're going to be flashing, I would rather you inform me beforehand so I can brace myself."

"Brace yourself for what love? Nothing's changed since the last time you looked," Sirius added, picking up on the double entendre. Before Ella could retort, there was a purposeful cough from Arthur.

"Yes, well maybe you should leave it there, hey kids?" he said a little uncomfortably. Kingsley was trying to suppress a grin while Moody seemed nonchalant about the whole thing as his magical blue eye was zipping in every direction, keeping watch for a possible attack.

Ella turned a bright shade of pink while Sirius just grinned.

"Sorry 'bout that Arthur. Forgot you oldies had sensitive ears," he said and caught sight of Kingsley's and winked at him.

"I do hate to break up what was surely an interesting topic to cover I'm sure Sirius, but I believe it would be best to get this over with quickly. They are already suspicious of so many employees working late this evening."

"Okay then, I suppose we'd better go then," Ella said and walked toward the veil, about to go straight through it. Sirius grabbed hold of her arm.

"What, you're just going to go, like right now?" he asked desperately.

"I don't see why not," she replied.

"But –"

"But what? We've said our goodbyes. It's only going to get harder the longer we leave it."

Ella didn't really want to explain that all she could think of was to go through that veil and finally be at peace again. The quicker she got away from this time, the quicker she could forget Sirius as she now knew him and return to a normal life. She couldn't stand thinking of losing him any more. Despite Sirius recent yearnings for his old life, he once again felt he didn't want to leave. His internal battle continued but he resigned to the fact that it had to happen and despite the unfortunate timing, it was now or never.

"Can I at least get a hug?" He asked. He felt he sounded rather pathetic but he really couldn't care. His life was about to be uprooted once again.

Ella looked at him with sad eyes and hugged him as tight as she could. She didn't want to cry again, so once she pulled away she gave a quick wave to Kingsley, Mad-Eye and Arthur then almost dove into the veil.

Ella existed in this time no longer.

* * *

Ella was now surrounded by an expanse of white. There were no landmarks to speak of except for the veil flapping slightly behind her. Although she hadn't taken a step, she turned around and the veil was suddenly a good hundred metres from her. She turned around again and instead of the endless whiteness, she was met with what appeared to be a mirror wall, stretching as high and as far as she could see. She was met only with her own reflection as not even the now far away veil was registered in the mirror. Ella looked at herself in the mirror and realised her hair was once again long and as she moved her hand to feel the length of her hair, she noticed with a pang that the ring Sirius gave her had disappeared from her finger. She looked back into the mirror again and jumped backwards. Despite how the reflection was mimicking Ella perfectly, it didn't look like the young Ella anymore.

The reflection Ella's hair was shorter and lighter in colour. She also donned a pair of thin rimmed glasses. The real Ella pressed her hand against the mirror and the reflection copied. She made a face and the reflection Ella made the same face, made possibly more comical due to the older features. Ella was suddenly gripped with the feeling of relief, but at the same time, melancholy.

"At least I know I didn't die at too young an age."

While she felt her lips move and heard her own voice, there was no sign on the reflection's face that she had said a word. Instead, the reflection moved of its own accord and spoke back.

"I would hardly call 36 an old age." There was only one thing to do. Ella screamed. The reflection Ella rolled her eyes.

"There's no need to scream. I'm you, you are me and we are we."

"Forgive me but it's not a common thing to meet yourself."

"Wow, I was really a suck wasn't I?" The reflection pondered. Ella glared at the mirror.

"What are you – how - "

"I am here because I knew I had to be here. You need guidance to get back and I knew it had to be me, or you if you will, to give it to you…that is, me."

"So how do I get back, we get back…oh can we just leave it as 'you' and 'me', it's much less confusing."

"You need to accept that you have to go back and you will." As the reflection Ella spoke, movement behind the real Ella caught her attention.

"Oh my goodness, I forgot just how gorgeous he was when he was young," the reflection spoke wistfully. Confused, Ella turned around and saw in the distance a figure come through the veil, which had to be Sirius. Ella panicked.

"Okay, I accept that I have to go back, can I go now?" This question brought the reflection out of her reverie.

"I'm afraid it's not as simple as saying it."

"Then please, tell me how!"

Her older reflection looked back at her almost pityingly.

"You should cherish the time you had with him, not try to run away and forget. But I know that's just how we operate."

"Please," Ella asked urgently. The reflection was silent for a while, as if choosing her words carefully.

"It was a car accident."

"What was?"

"How you die, how I died." Comprehension dawned on Ella.

"But I can't drive; I've never even been in a car before," Ella said absently. After wanting to know for so long, she was surprised that she didn't feel any great emotion.

"You'll be driving down the motorway, you'll black out even though you haven't done so for years, and you will end up here. There will be no pain, no one else will be hurt, you will just simply…no longer be."

It was funny how the reflection knew exactly what Ella wanted to know, even though the questions never formed on her lips. Then again, Ella and the reflection were the same person, just from different times and shaped by different experiences.

"Mum and dad will be devastated but they will get by with the help of Rhys and Declan, who will have their own families by the way. They will mourn for you, as they did while you were alive, and eventually, they will be okay."

Ella felt a tear running down her cheek, but it wasn't out of sadness.

"So they're all still alive and well?"

"Alive, well, safe. All of the above. Despite losing us, they're going great."

"Oh thank Merlin." As Ella felt relief wash over her at the knowledge of her family still being alive and well. The reflection started to fade.

"I think that's all we ever needed to know."

As the reflection faded, the mirror began to reflect a scene; not of that behind her of the archway and the figure which must have been Sirius, but of a familiar room with beds lined up, dressed in crisp white linen. The hospital wing of Hogwarts looked as it always had. Ella recognised herself in one of the occupied beds and in a rush to get closer, she walked straight through the mirror as if it were water. Her mind was overcome with fogginess and she felt as though she were sinking into a bath of warm water.

* * *

Sirius sat on a floor of white, directly in front of the veil. He looked around at the white void. He was sure he could see a figure up ahead but wasn't entirely sure. He wasn't sure about anything anymore. When he went through the veil, he had assumed he would simply wake up back in his time, and everything would be right again. He didn't think he would be stuck in a strange limbo, still going over conflicting thoughts and feelings in his mind.

"Why can't anything be easy?" He said to the endless space.

"If everything was easy, there would be no room for self discovery or improvement." Sirius jerked and clumsily got himself into an upright stance. With his wand raised, he turned around and faced a figure which was unmistakably a member of the Black family. But the words spoken were too philosophical and wise to have come from the mouth of Regulus Black. So Sirius thought anyway.

"What are you doing here?" Sirius asked, none too politely.

"I am here because I need to be. Whether it is for your benefit or for mine, I'm not really sure."

"I can only imagine it's for your benefit somehow. I can't see you doing anything that would assist me, nor how you could ever help me," Sirius replied scathingly.

He felt pent up with emotion for his brother. There was grief and a sense of failure that he could never get through to Regulus, who was too busy trying to be the golden child for his parents while Sirius was just as keen to prove his family's views were not acceptable. At the same time he felt anger and jealousy that Regulus so easily won the affections of his parents when he was chided for not being a respectable Black.

"You may be right. I think I am here for selfish reasons, but it doesn't change the fact that I wanted to be here."

"And what selfish reasons could a death eater want to see me for? I'm already dead and going to live a fucked up, shitful life. Are you here to gloat?"

"No, I'm here to tell you that you didn't fail. I changed."

"What the fuck are you on about Reg?"

"I was a death eater. _Was._ But I found out just how serious everything was getting. The Dark Lord was more powerful and careless than I could ever imagine. I wasn't killed by Voldemort, I died trying to take him down. Kreacher helped."

Sirius looked at him disbelief.

"You came here to tell me you'd changed to the good side and that the feral house elf helped you try to foil a plot from some evil bloke?"

"If you want to put it that way, yeah. And you might do well to remember to treat Kreacher with some respect, it may just save you one day."

"That house elf is a fuckwit."

"Well he helped out the good side."

"He's still a fuckwit."

"Yeah, a fuckwit who you'll always resent and as a result, he will leak information that will get you killed."

"How can you say to respect him if he was in on the plan to kill me?"

"Because you mistreated him and that's why he hated you. Look, will you stop being so childish?"

It was like they were children again, bickering and contradicting one another.

"I'll stop acting childish when you stop acting out of sorts."

"I told you, I changed."

"And you came here to tell me so you're conscience could be clear, I still don't see how this helps me out. I have to go back and I have no idea how to get there, or even if I want to go."

"You have to go."

"Oh, because _you_ said I have to go, I'm packing my bags already."

"Well why _don't_ you want to go back?"

Sirius would never have thought that Regulus would be the one he would tell about what he was feeling at the present moment but there was no one else around.

"Because if I don't go back, maybe everything will be different. Maybe James and Lily wouldn't need to go into hiding, and Peter wouldn't need to be secret keeper and rat them out to get them killed, and all those muggles wouldn't die and I wouldn't go to Azkaban and Bella won't get the chance to kill me and-"

"Okay, clearly you haven't thought this through properly. Have you thought that maybe it would be worse if you don't go back? You're not thinking of staying here because it will change things for the better, you just don't want to go back because you don't want to have to go through everything you know will break you. Lily and James' death, Peter's betrayal, Azkaban, everyone thinking you finally succumbed to the dark side and how easily people seemed to be able to believe it. Most of all you're just scared to go back because you know you end up alone and unhappy. All of it is true, but the thing you're forgetting is that you will deal with it because you have to, not because you want to. Right now you need to accept that this is going to happen, because you need to go back."

"Are you trying to insult me or make me feel better?"

"Neither. I'm just trying to make you see that not everything can turn out according to plan, and that maybe other people's lives aren't all that peachy either. Now you just have to make your own decision. I know you'll make the right one in the end."

With these final words, Regulus walked away, fading with every step he took and Sirius was once again left alone.

He wondered if Ella was visited by someone she didn't particularly like when she came through the veil, or whether he just always had the worse luck. Maybe she never needed to accept that she needed to go back, because she had known from the start that she must go back and the timeline must be completed. Sirius was strangely comforted by Regulus' presence earlier. He almost felt a strange pride for his dead brother, who clearly was different than Sirius had seemed.

Despite Regulus' words, he couldn't decide whether to go back. Even if he did accept that he had to return, he didn't know the process of getting back. He sat in contemplative silence, surrounded by the suffocating white, thinking.

* * *

Ella couldn't breath. Her eyes shot open in panic and her body seized up. Seconds past which felt like minutes and she thought she was going to suffocate. Then, finally her body took action and she let out a series of hacking coughs, accompanied by wheezing breaths. As she coughed, she noticed a fine glittery dust coming from her mouth. She would have looked at it and panicked some more but was preoccupied with trying to get as much air in as she could. The person in the bed next to her lay perfectly still, unresponsive to Ella's hacking coughs. As the intensity of her coughs died down, she was aware of someone next to her, making hurried movements. She heard the clang of glass upon glass and the unmistakable sound of a bottle opening. Madame Pomfrey, the school medic, was positioning Ella upright as she was too weak to reposition herself.

"My goodness, I would never have believed it had I not seen you wake. Here, take two of these and drink this, all of it."

Ella turned her head away from the nurse as a child would, but Madame Pomfrey was having none of it.

"You have been out for quite a while, over a month. You need to take this, otherwise you may go back under."

Ella groaned but opened her mouth where two pills were popped in while a glass of horrid tasting potion was forced down her throat. Ella immediately began to feel less fuzzy, and she was suddenly ravenous.

"Food," she rasped, her voice changed from a month's misuse.

"I'm afraid I cannot give you food for another four hours, it can interfere with the potion. I have already sent word to Dumbledore that you have woken. He has informed your family and they should be here soon. He will allow your friends to visit after they have finished class." Madame Pomfrey said, clearly displeased that Dumbledore had approved such a large number of students to come into the hospital wing where sick people needed their rest.

* * *

Ella wracked her brains to figure out what had happened. The last thing she remembered was her and Sirius' detention. They had been talking…Sirius had found something strange on the shelf which had fallen on the ground and then…she had woken up. She took note of her surroundings. At the foot of her bed lay a meal trolley, stacked with flowers, cards and small tokens from her friends and supposedly some unknown well wishers as well. The many boxes of chocolates and lollies which were given as gifts were mocking her. Ella couldn't believe how hungry she was, and yet she wasn't allowed to eat. It didn't help that many of the boxes were open and chocolates taken from within. She suspected her friends of eating her gifts; their excuse would be they didn't want the sweets to go bad while she lay asleep on the bed. She looked to the still bed on her left. She could see a tuft of messy black hair and the pale, wax like face of Sirius Black. She wondered if she looked as bad as him. Pulling back he covers slightly, an action which fatigued her greatly, she took note of her far too thin frame and examined her body with bony fingers. While there was a mirror on the bedside table, she daren't look at herself for fear of seeing a wasted face.

The door at the hospital entrance flew open and in rushed her mother and father; both with faces full of delight and worry.

"Esmeralda, my dear, oh you're alright, you're alright. We thought we may lose you, but you're okay," her mother exclaimed as she sat on the side of the bed and held her daughter in a loving embrace. Her father stood there, not daring to speak because of the emotion flowing through him. He had almost resigned to the fact that he had lost his daughter. He kissed her on the cheek and sat in the seat beside the bed, holding Ella's hand.

"My goodness, we need to get some food in to you, you're all skin and bones. Look at all your gifts Esmeralda, there were so many people coming in to visit you, we were all very worried. There was Ebony, Margot and Lily was here quite often, even Miranda came to see you. There were plenty of boys who came up here too, Esmeralda, very nice young boys who were worried about you; some of them quite good looking too –"

"Gwen, I think being set up with a nice young boy would be the last thing on her mind right now," Ella's father said kindly to her mother.

"Oh yes, of course. How silly of me, I just thought it was lovely that you had so many people visit. The boys will be here soon, they are allowed to come out of class early. They missed you terribly. Rhys has been going very well in transfiguration actually, I think he was so distressed all he could do was study, for once. Declan was the little ray of sunshine, bless him, always saying you would come through it because you had promised to teach him something about Quidditch history or something – "

"Mum, you're babbling," Ella said feebly but with a smile.

"You're telling me! We've had to put up with her like this for over a month," her father answered cheerfully.

"Why am I here, why didn't I go to St. Mungo's?" Ella asked, genuinely curious as to why she hadn't been put under the best medical care if she had been in a coma for over a month.

"We thought it would be best to stay here. Poppy has been great and your brothers and your friends wanted to be able to visit and take care of you, and that young Sirius over there, his friends had put up quite the protest when it was discussed to move you both so we thought it would be better to leave you both here where everyone could visit."

"We've both been out of it?" Ella asked.

"Yes. Although he doesn't look very well at all, poor dear, I do hope he wakes up, his friends are such lovely boys. He's going out with Miranda I see, he'll have to be careful there. Apparently his family doesn't care for him much but clearly he is a popular boy, look at all those gifts he got –" Ella looked again toward Sirius' bed and saw that he had as many teddy bears as she did chocolates. There must have been plenty of very worried girls in the school. Ella wondered if any girls had come and kissed Sirius in the hope of reviving him like in the muggle fairy tale _Snow White. _Ella also wondered if Margot had been the sender of one of the bears. Her mother continued.

"- but between us and the Potters, he has been well looked after. Oh poor James, that boy was very distressed. His parents were telling us that those two boys were like peas in a pod, always mucking around and such."

Ella smiled as her mum continued her ramblings, which she always did when she was stressed or upset about something. Clearly the revival of her daughter had caused her quite the upset albeit a good one. The twin doors opened once more and two boys, younger than Ella, ran up to her bed. The youngest one jumped on top of her and hugged her about the neck while the older one waited patiently at her bedside with his parents.

"Great to see you too Declan, but you have to let go, I can't breathe!" Ella gasped.

"Oh, sorry Es! Didn't I tell you she would come good! You need a good feed though, look at this!" Declan said as he held up Ella's rather bony hand. As Ella's mum told Declan to get off the bed, the other boy, Rhys, was finally allowed to hug his sister.

"We thought you were a gonner Es. Thank Merlin you're okay."

"I hear you actually do your homework now," Ella said.

"Yeah, who knew I had a knack for Transfiguration? McGonagall was really surprised, so was mum actually."

"And just because your sister is well again, that doesn't mean you should slack off. You're marks have been so good of late."

Ella smiled as she watched the banter between her family. She felt as though she had been missing them for ages.

* * *

After Ella had finally convinced her parents that it was okay to leave for some food, the school day was over and her friends were finally allowed to visit. There was a massive crash as six people tried to enter the hospital wing at once. There was much scurrying and cursing until they finally realised that they would have to calm down and enter one by one in order to see their friends. Ebony ran up first and hugged her just as her mother had done.

"Oh Ella, we thought you weren't going to make it. It had been so long, we thought you'd – oh never mind, you're back now." Ebony was sobbing uncontrollably by this stage and making Ella's pyjamas quite wet.

"You might want to calm down Eb, otherwise Hogwarts might just become an underwater Atlantis!" Ella said, not understanding why that joke seemed so familiar to her.

"Oh – sorry – I – just –" Ebony couldn't finish her sentence for sobbing. Margot was now the one to hug Ella.

"I'm so glad you're okay El."

"Thanks Margy. I have a question, you didn't happen to be one of the ones to send Sirius a teddy bear were you?" She asked her friend who turned a rather bright shade of pink at this comment.

"Oh I hope you don't mind, we ate a few of your chocolates. We didn't want them to go to waste."

This time it was Lily who spoke. She was not one of Ella's best friends but they had always got along well.

"How dare you, can't you see I'm going to need fattening up now?" Ella said with a smile and Lily laughed.

"Good to know you're sense of humour is still in tact," she replied and also gave Ella a hug. As Ella sat listening to all the latest gossip her friends had, she almost forgot that three other people had entered the room with them.

Looking over at Sirius' bed she saw James, Remus and Peter all looking sombre. Sirius had shown no signs of waking. Remus noticed Ella looking over and tapped Peter on the shoulder. They both came and joined the larger group, saying how good it was to see Ella awake. James stayed at Sirius' bedside. He looked extremely tired and dispirited.

"Um, has there been any sign of Sirius waking yet?" Remus asked Ella.

"No, he's been like that ever since I woke up. How's James holding up?" Ella asked. She felt a pang of sympathy for the bespectacled boy; Sirius and he were like brothers.

"It was really hard for all of us at the start, then after a while we all got used to just coming in and talking to you guys. When James heard you were awake, I think he got his hopes up that Sirius was awake too. I suppose we all just hoped-" and he trailed off. Lily was now also looking over to Sirius' bed and saw James sitting there. Ella was shocked to see Lily walk over to James and put an arm around him. James then held her hand as though it was his lifeline.

Ella thought that even if Sirius didn't wake, maybe it would be alright as this tragedy had allowed James and Lily to be together.

* * *

**A/N: **Aren't you just so proud of me for updating so quickly? Don't expect it to happen much, i was just in a writing mood lol. Ella is back, YAY...Sirius is not...BOO! Just to confirm...in the limbo place behind the veil, Ella's visitor was her older self who had come because she was the only one who knew how to make Ella accept she had to go back (all Ella wanted from the start was to find out how she died and whether her family were okay)...Sirius was visited by Regulus because Regulus desperately needed acceptance from his brother, to tell him that he turned to the good side after all and because Sirius needed to see that no one's lives turn out how they plan...

Extra points for people who know why Sirius is not back yet. More extra points if you can guess which friend is Ella's best friend. And i will even give you bonus points for asking your own questions!!!

Thank you to everyone who reviewed...you are all so prompt and ask the most wonderful questions! I love how a lot of you are theoreticising about the story too, so keep it up!

Please review, you make a bored person very happy and inflate her ego a tad!!!


	14. Mirror Mirror

**Disclaimer:** Well I'm up to chapter fourteen without being sued so that must mean my disclaimers to this point are sufficient...oh yeah, not mine.

**HAPPY BELATED CHRISTMAS AND NEW YEAR TO ALL MY READERS!!!**

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* * *

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**Chapter Fourteen: Mirror Mirror**

Ella couldn't believe how tired she was. She had practically been asleep for over a month and yet all she could think about was the next time she would be able to close her eyes and rest. Her friends and the Marauders had stayed most of the night, making sure she had caught up with all the latest gossip, including the newfound closeness of Lily and James. Although she hated to think it, all she wished was that her visitors would leave quite soon to go to their own beds in Gryffindor tower. Luckily, Madame Pomfrey saved her from exhibiting such rudeness as she emerged from her office with a scowl on her face, ready to push everyone out the door.

"What are you all still doing here, it's half ten at night! My patients need some rest and you are disturbing the peace, not to mention you are out after curfew! Be gone with you!"

No one was game enough to argue that Ella and Sirius were the only two patients in the hospital wing, therefore they were hardly disturbing others but they knew Madame Pomfrey was a force to be reckoned with and obliged. Once Madame Pomfrey was satisfied that the students were leaving, she turned back toward her office. Ella was surprised to see that James still lingered; not to stay by Sirius' side, but to talk to her. He sat in a chair between the two occupied beds.

"I'm really sorry for seeming so…glum. It's really great that you've woken, and I'm glad to see you're doing so well. It's just that – "

"Don't worry. If it was my best friend lying there, I'd be pretty glum too," Ella replied, trying to be comforting. She wasn't sure how successful she was at the task as she was still rather tired, but she wanted to help James any way she could. They sat in silence for a while, James sometimes looking over his shoulder to where his best friend lay.

"Um, I was wondering if you could do me a favour. It's not big or anything, I mean you wont really have to do anything, considering you're probably still feeling like shit, but if you could I would really appreciate it."

James was expecting Ella to say no. After all, they didn't really know each other that well. He was pleasantly surprised with her answer.

"Yeah sure."

"Oh, great. Thanks." There was a pause again.

"So, what did you want me to do?"

"Oh right," James said, feeling slightly foolish. He picked up the mirror which lay on the bedside cabinet between Ella and Sirius' beds.

"If Sirius wakes up or shows any changes or –" James couldn't bring himself to put the words 'Sirius' and 'die' in the same sentence, as if saying the words out loud may make them come true. Instead, he explained what he would like Ella to do. He handed her the mirror.

"This mirror, there are two of them and if you say the name of the person who has the other one, their reflection will appear and you can talk with them. I have the other one, this one is Sirius'. I carry it with me all the time, so if anything happens to Sirius, could you just make sure to tell me straight away? It doesn't matter what time of day, or how little the change is, I'd really like to know. Pomfrey's pretty good at keeping us informed, but if there's a chance that…well I just want to be able to get here as quick as I can."

Ella looked at James, almost not believing that he was the same person so willing to break rules and play practical jokes on passers by.

"So I just say your name into it and you'll appear?"

"Once I answer you, yeah."

"No problem then," Ella reassured with a smile. "So, you and Lily ey?" she added, more for her own benefit of knowing all the gossip than for a lighter conversation topic to make James feel better.

"Yeah, me and Lily," he answered. It was the first time she saw him smile genuinely since entering the room so many hours ago.

"How did it happen?"

"I don't really know. I don't think we're even _anything _yet, but we've certainly shared a lot, and I think I may have finally have her convinced that I'm not as bad as she thought I was. Makes me think Sirius isn't waking up, just so he could get me and Lily together." Ella laughed.

"Well it does sound like something Sirius would do."

Ella wasn't sure where this comment came from. She barely knew Sirius and yet she knew that the words she had spoken were true. She thought back to their detention where they were discussing Lily and James and concluded that she must have figured out more about his character than she thought. This niggling feeling was not overly troublesome, as all she could think of right now was trying not to fall asleep while James was still sitting there. James saw Ella try to stifle a yawn and shot up out of his seat.

"Fuck," James quickly covered his mouth, not meaning to swear in front of Ella so blatantly, "shit, sorry, didn't mean to swear, all I meant was sorry for keeping you up. You must be exhausted."

"Actually I am," Ella replied chuckling.

"Sorry. Goodnight," James said as he started to walk away. He then addressed the unconscious Sirius, "Now Padfoot, that young lady over there is a nice girl, I don't want you corrupting her so keep your unconscious hands to yourself! And if you're faking this whole thing I am going to kick you extremely hard in a place which was only intended to be treated nicely!"

Sirius remained still.

"That was a pretty big threat. I'm sure if he was faking he would have woken up straight away," Ella commented.

"Ah, it was worth a shot," James replied then gave a wave as he exited the hospital wing.

* * *

Ella couldn't understand why she couldn't sleep. James had left more than three hours ago and despite the fact that she was utterly exhausted, her mind would not switch off. She was at the very emotional stage of exhaustion where angry outbursts of whispered swearing were common, and crying seemed the only appealing option. She could feel the tears welling, but quickly dabbed at her eyes when she looked over to Sirius' bed. Unconscious or not, she would not cry in front of company. She continued staring at him and without realising it, got up out of her bed and sat in the visitor's chair facing Sirius.

He looked very different. His hair had grown well past his shoulders and lay unkempt about his head; very different to his usual pristine style. His skin was waxy and his face seemed very drawn in. Not for the first time was Ella tempted to see her own reflection, and her hands twitched for the mirror which James had leant her but she figured she wouldn't be able to handle what she saw. She distracted herself by looking at Sirius' closed eyes, focussing on the long, dark lashes that any girl would kill for. He looked devoid of life. Everything about his positioning seemed to scream death. Ella assumed Madame Pomfrey simply positioned them neatly when they were brought into the hospital wing but seeing Sirius lying on his back, head slightly propped up and his hands resting above the covers, one on top of the other, eerily reminded Ella of how someone was placed in their coffin. Suddenly hit with the realisation that her family and friends would have thought the same about her, Ella needed something to lighten her mood.

"Remember that conversation we had in detention about James and Lily? Well it appears Lily has, to use your words and not mine, taken that pole out of her arse because I don't know if you realised but they seem to be getting quite cosy. James thinks your faking just so they can get together, which I'm sure he is happy about. Happy about him and Lily getting along, not you being in a coma of course."

She didn't know why she kept talking. Perhaps it was to tire her out so she could finally sleep. Perhaps it was because Sirius needed some contact with life in order to come back. Perhaps it was because, for some strange reason, Ella had felt extremely downhearted since she woke and needed something to occupy herself so she could distract herself from how she felt. It was as though there was an unbearable weight in her stomach; something akin to suffering a great loss. She assumed this was a normal reaction to coming out of an extended coma, but she still didn't like it.

Having run out of gossip to tell Sirius about, Ella resorted to rifling through the many gifts which were piled on the table at the end of the bed. Almost every gift was accompanied by a little note from his well-wishers. Ella decided it might be nice to go through and read the cards out to Sirius. Although this action was to stem her curiosity at who had been sending Sirius gifts and to cure her boredom, she reasoned it would be alright to pry into Sirius' personal collection as she was reading each card on behalf of Sirius himself. This is what she told herself anyway, so as not to feel as nosy as she was.

"Okay, you have a lovely box of chocolates here, empty by the way. I'm sure your friends wanted to help you as much as mine did. The card reads: _Dear Sirius, hope you get well soon, lots of love, Jacinta Mendelson. P.S. have you heard of the muggle story Snow White? _Okay, so we know you at least got a kiss from Miss Mendelson then," Ella said with a smile as she picked up the next gift which was an extremely cute fluffy teddy bear.

"Cutesy fluffy teddy bear here, curtesy of…well I can't understand the writing," Ella said, but attempted to read the card out anyway, "_Hate you moke appalling recreation, your fiend, Moccasin? _Well that can't be right, unless this person really doesn't like you."

Ella got out her wand and prodded the card to perform a neatness charm on the writing.

"Oh, okay. It is supposed to read: _Hope you make a full recovery, your friend, Monica. _Well that is much more pleasant wouldn't you agree? Okay, the next gift is yet again, another box of chocolates…and apparently your friends will eat any chocolates except the Turkish delights. Who the hell sends chocolates to someone in a coma? Of course everyone else is going to eat them, because it's not like we can eat them in our sleep now can we. According to this card, a group of girls, second year I would guess, sent you these ones, and they have been rather kind to write a poem for you as well. The sheer corniness of this poem may just be enough to wake you up by the way."

_Although you have had detention,_

_Too many times to mention,_

_This time you didn't come back,_

_Our gorgeous Sirius Black,_

_Although you are asleep,_

_I still wish you were mine to keep,_

_It is your face that we all miss,_

_We hope when you wake, we will all get a kiss_

"They only miss your face? Doesn't say much about your personality then does it? I think it's a safe bet that you got at least three more kisses right there. This next present is a beautiful ensemble of flowers, chocolates and yet another lovely teddy bear. This card is rather long, so here goes: _Dear Sirius (sexy muffin)…_I'm not sure I want to read on, but I will anyway…_ you have no idea how hard it has been seeing you like this. I miss everything about you, from your piercing grey stare to your stupid barking laugh. I feel as though you have left me and the only thing that keeps me going is that I know it wasn't your choice. I want you to come back soon so I can wrap my arms around you and have your body close to mine again. Love you, miss you. Love your Miranda. _Well there you have it Mr. Black, your girlfriend wants you to come back so she can jump you, if that doesn't bring you out of a coma, I don't know what will!"

Ella yawned and realised she may just be able to get back to sleep. She rose from the chair to return to her bed, calling out a 'goodnight' to the unconscious boy in the bed next to hers before falling asleep as her head hit the pillow.

* * *

Ella woke as the sun spilled orange light into the hospital wing. She assumed it was morning until she realised the sun was on the wrong side of the room. She almost panicked as she realised she had slept through an entire day. She had slept through enough; how much more time would she lose if she continued to oversleep? Her panic subsided slightly as she heard a smooth female voice coming from the bed next to her. She looked over to see Miranda with tears in her eyes as she looked at her boyfriend's face. Her hand was grasping his above the covers.

"I really miss you, and you can't understand how lonely I've been," Ella heard her say, "I really just need you to come back or to…I just need to be able to make a decision. You can't keep me hanging on like this; I need to get on with my life, whether that is with you or with someone else. I just can't keep playing this waiting game. I need to know if you're going to be here for me."

Ella felt that she was intruding on an extremely personal moment, therefore she pretended to still be asleep but continued to pay attention and watch from her half closed eyes. She saw Miranda hold Sirius' hand up to her face as tears stained her cheeks. It was a very moving moment. Ella could see Miranda's lips moving but her words were too quiet to distinguish. As Miranda placed Sirius' hand back onto the covers and made to pull away, Sirius made a hacking sound. Miranda stood there stunned while Ella shot to a seated position in her bed. Sirius had now turned over and was gasping for breath, coughing over the side of the bed.

"Oh my god, Sirius!" Miranda screamed and jumped beside him on the bed to pat his back as he coughed. As happened with Ella, Sirius appeared to be coughing up a strange powdery dust which, Ella knew, was the source of his breathlessness. Madame Pomfrey had already rushed to Sirius' bedside and was feeding him the same potion which Ella had taken the day before. Sirius was also refused food for four hours, much to his disgust.

Ella was so transfixed that, until now, she had forgotten to call for James. She quickly snatched the mirror off the bedside table and yelled James' name. She barely had time to recognise her own reflection, when it changed into the face of James Potter.

"Ella! What, what is it?" James asked urgently.

"Sirius is awake," Ella replied. James' next utterance was not to Ella but apparently to everyone sitting around him, Ella assumed, at the dinner table.

"Remus! Peter! Sirius is back, quick come on! Oh for fucks sake Peter, you can have dessert another night, we'll go to the kitchens just come _on!_" And with that, James' face disappeared from the mirror.

* * *

Sirius felt as though his lungs were burning. Not only had he felt as though he had coughed up sandpaper, but the potion Madame Pomfrey insisted on him taking was not pleasant, and now he also had a teary girlfriend to console. While he had been smothered in kisses once he came to, he was now required to stroke his girlfriend's hair, hold her hand and tell her everything would be alright. Just then, James and his entourage came bursting into the room. Miranda was almost flung out of the way as James went to hug his best friend.

"You wanker! We thought you'd gone and carked it on us! I bet you waited the extra couple of days just to piss me off ey?"

Sirius couldn't explain why, but it was a huge relief to see James. It was as though it had been James in the coma, not him.

"Lay off James. I just wanted a bit of a sleep in, was that too much to ask?"

"Sleep in? You missed a whole month of classes mate, not to mention Christmas," Remus added. Remus then approached Sirius and gave him a manly hug, quite a bit less desperate than James' had been.

"Since when are you one to sleep in anyway?"

"Not that you would know Moony, but some of us need our beauty sleep."

"Well if that's what you look like after a month's beauty sleep, then I hate to remember what you looked like before," James chided. For the first time since waking, Sirius thought about his appearance. No proper food or daylight or, anything for that matter, after a month clearly would have taken its toll. His hand flew to his beloved hair.

"Fuck, I could put my hair in bunches it's that long! I must look like Bella!" He said, a slight note of panic to his voice.

"Don't be ridiculous Sirius. You're much more feminine!"

"He's just come out of a coma, for Christ sake. Give him a rest!" Miranda interrupted, whether she was annoyed at the lack of attention being payed to her or whether she was genuinely looking after Sirius' wellbeing was unsure.

"It's okay babe. They're just joking around."

"Yeah but you've just come out of a coma, they should go easy on you!"

"You know that's just how we operate, let 'em be yeah?" Sirius soothed as Miranda's pout slowly disappeared.

"Okay, I'll let it go this time. Just for you," Miranda replied and was quickly pecked Sirius on the lips to prove she was no longer annoyed. There was a bout of eye rolling throughout the room and Peter pretended he was going to be sick. Ella couldn't help but laugh inwardly at their interaction, and knowing that the atmosphere was slightly awkward now, she chose this point to speak up.

"Did you want your mirror back now James?" she asked. James turned around, startled. Clearly he had forgotten she was there.

"Oh yeah! Thanks for that, you're a gem, I owe you one. If you ever need anyone to be pranked or help with homework or something, I'd be happy to help!"

Sirius looked at James and Ella suspiciously.

"Ah, is there something you two aren't telling me?"

"What me and James? No. But you should ask him about Lily."

"What?" Sirius said in a shocked high pitched voice. Peter jumped as the resulting noise was rather loud.

"You and Lily are getting it on?" Sirius continued excitedly. Ella had to hand it to the guy, after she woke, she hardly had any energy to talk, let alone show any form of enthusiasm.

"Define getting it on," James replied with a smirk.

"Oxford dictionary defines getting it on as dating, going out, hanky panky, courting, getting down and dirty, fu-"

"Okay I think we get the picture," interrupted Remus.

"Well in that case, no we are not getting it on. But we've been talking a lot and she doesn't think I'm a wanker anymore so that's got to be good."

"Got to be good? Mate, you've achieved the impossible!"

"Excuse me, you are talking about one of my friends here," Ella now interrupted. Sirius looked over to her and grinned.

"Yeah but you have to admit, that pole was firmly wedged." Ella simply rolled her eyes at him. Seeing Ella do this, for some reason, made Sirius' smile even bigger. Sirius turned back to his friends.

"How long has it been? I'm starving!"

* * *

It had been a week since Sirius and Ella had been out of the hospital wing. Despite Sirius' chipper mood on the day he woke, he had been steadily going downhill ever since. Like Ella, he could not shake an ever increasing sense of carrying a huge weight in his stomach. He sat silently at the dinner table each day, listening to his friends talking and mucking around while never really getting involved in anything. Even Miranda failed to improve his mood with numerous visits to broom closets and late night deep and meaningfuls. Sirius figured his mood would improve when he was allowed to play quidditch again. Madame Pomfrey had forbade any activities which put Sirius or Ella at risk of head trauma, as their bodies had been through a huge shock already and needed to avoid further injury.

Ella's days were filled with maintaining a façade of cheerfulness, as she was always so adept at. Her life had returned to normal; passing notes in class, gossiping during her free hours, listening to Ebony's mammoth rants about Jeremy. Ella's major concern was sleep. Although she was constantly tired, she was afraid to go to bed each night, for she feared that if she slept, she would slip back into a coma and miss out on so much more.

* * *

Ever since they awoke, those close to Sirius and Ella had been watching them closely, convinced that they both had been changed by what had happened and that only time would heal whatever they both were feeling after being cut off from the world for so long. Despite how isolated and inexplicitly downhearted both Ella and Sirius felt, one morning at the Gryffindor table improved both their moods. The house elves had prepared pancakes for breakfast, and as Ella piled her plate high with a huge grin on her face, she suddenly felt a rush of happiness. A few seats down, Sirius' friends were staring at him in awe as he piled his own plate high, laughing and joking while making sure to pay particular attention to his doting girlfriend. After everything they had tried, nobody expected pancakes had the power to cure all ails.

* * *

**A/N: **Okay...hopefully this chapter wasn't boring, but it just had to be done to make the rest of the story flow a bit better. As for Sirius coming back, lets just say that he was looking through the mirror in limbo at the time Miranda was talking to him and decided he should go back...in other words he figured he could find happiness for a while if he went back...interesting no? lol. Okay so the next chapter will kick off their time in the past!!! Let it all begin again lol. Any questions? Anybody?

Thank you SO MUCH for the reviews! last chapter received the most reviews for a chapter i have ever recorded so you are all just little diamonds and gems!!! I really appreciate your input/theories/opinions etc etc etc so would love if you could continue reviewing! Most of you got the bonus points for my last questions: Ebony is Ella's best friend and Sirius didn't come back because he was still in limbo trying to figure out if it was worth it to go back! Thanks again!!!


	15. Familiar Sensation

**Disclaimer: **Hm, maybe if I had lost my memory I may think Harry Potter was my own work...but, unfortunately, I can not be easily fooled into believing I actually owned Harry Potter...

* * *

**Chapter Fifteen:**

Sirius was currently soaring high above the ground on his broomstick, paying no particular attention to his team mates practising below him. It had taken three weeks solid badgering to get himself reinstated on the Gryffindor quidditch team. It wasn't his team mates he had to convince, but the strict nurse Madame Pomfrey. Sirius thought the final straw must have been when he threatened to camp outside her office in the hospital wing and sing 'Life on Mars' at his highest and loudest possible pitch. Apparently the nurse was not fond of the glam rock movement and caved after the first bout of the chorus. Sirius looked toward the stands where Miranda had come to watch the practise; something which seemed mandatory for the girlfriends of quidditch players. As a result, Miranda was not alone, but accompanied by two other girls who were Mark Jenkins and Gordon Stoke's girlfriends.

"Sirius, would you mind getting your arse down here so we can practise properly?" Jemima yelled.

"I don't know what you're worried about, the games only against Hufflepuff on Saturday," Sirius retorted once he reached her side.

"Yes but your mind's been addled with of late and I don't trust you to go around trying to hit bludgers; you may just accidentally aim one at one of our own team mates,"

"Oh Jem, are you doubting my quidditch abilities now?"

"No of course not, I'm just simply…actually yeah, yeah I am." Sirius shook his head at her, feigning disappointment.

"You hurt me Jem," Sirius replied and Jemima hit him lightly on the shoulder with her bat.

"Right, enough of that, your girlfriend is watching and she hates me already," Jemima said and payed attention to James as he let the bludgers out of the box.

"Miranda doesn't hate you," Sirius said, perplexed. Jemima turned to look at him with a raised eyebrow.

"You and me get along really well, and we play quidditch so have to spend time together. Believe me, she hates me."

"Merlin, girls are-"

"Yes?" Jemima interrupted Sirius' mumblings with a challenge in her eye.

"Oh, nothing. Look we'd better help out."

Sirius was saved as he saw Natalie nearly get knocked off her broom by a determined bludger.

"Oh shit!" Jemima said and zoomed off to help her team mate.

Up in the stands, Miranda was looking on in hurt and confusion. Ever since he woke, Sirius had been different; quieter and miserable. As she watched the joy on his face as he zoomed about the quidditch pitch, she felt a pang of jealousy for the sport as she had been unable to promote such a reaction in him. Indeed, nobody had been very successful in making Sirius feel entirely better, even James. Sirius ran so hot and cold that every day was like a lucky dip of emotion. The coma had changed him, and Miranda was determined to make sure Sirius got back to his normal self. The first step in her plan came to her suddenly as she saw Ebony and Ella walking across the grounds. Miranda quickly packed up her things and rushed down from the stands to try and catch up with the two girls. She was breathless by the time she reached them.

"El-Ella! Ebon-y!" Ebony and Ella turned around in surprise.

"Miranda? Hey, how are you?" Ella answered.

"At the moment, I am buggered. Hang on," Miranda said as she leant an arm on Ella's shoulder to catch her breath. Once her breathing had returned to normal, Miranda righted herself and got to the point.

"Wow, who thought I was so unfit. Anyway, I wanted to ask you something, Ella."

"Okay. Fire away."

"How have you been since coming out of that coma thing? Like, emotionally and all that?" Ella looked surprised but answered all the same.

"Oh, well I've been okay," she replied. To this, Ebony snorted.

"You mean you're pretending to be okay. I know you El, something has been up. Don't listen to her Miranda, she's been right miserable since waking," Ebony offered.

"Oh thank god!" Miranda replied, relief flooding her face and a smile appearing. Ebony was rather put out while Ella looked on in curiosity.

"And why exactly would you _want _El here to be miserable may I ask," Ebony said with warning in her voice. Although she had nothing against Miranda personally, she was very protective of her friends and the girl before her had just rubbed her up the wrong way.

"Oh no, it's not that. Sorry El, you know I wouldn't want you to feel horrible," Ella figured this was not entirely true as she thought back to when Miranda had isolated her off from all her new friends, but quickly dismissed this thought as the girl continued, "It's just that Sirius has been out of sorts recently and nothing but quidditch or fucking pancakes can make him happy! And seeing as though you're feeling the same, then it must be some kind of side effect from your sleep or whatever."

"It was hardly a sleep, they were practically dead for a month!" Ebony said bitterly. As Ebony said this, Ella became rather feint. _Practically dead. _There was something about this phrase that felt strange. Ella steadied herself on Ebony's shoulder to avoid falling to the ground. This had happened a couple of times over the past few weeks, so Ebony was used to the reaction and automatically put her arm around Ella's waist to steady her.

"You alright?"

"Yeah, just another dizzy spell," Ella replied, although as always, she felt rather nauseous.

"You may want to get to your point here blondie," Ebony directed at Miranda.

"El, you've been having dizzy spells too?" Miranda asked. Ella couldn't bring herself to open her mouth so simply nodded her head.

"So that means you're both having the same physical and emotional side effects then," Miranda mused, more to herself than anyone else.

"So Black is blue too then?" Ebony asked.

"You could say that. And he's had a couple of dizzy spells, probably more but he's locked himself up in Gryffindor tower and he never told me the password so I haven't been able to go up and see him often."

"Well that explains why you use him as an accessory during the day then," Ebony answered under her breath.

"El, I know it's a big ask, but would you be able to talk to Sirius? Seeing as though you're both going through the same thing, maybe you can help each other out?" Miranda asked.

"I don't know Mindy, I barely know him and you want me to ask him about his feelings and such? I don't think I'd be comfortable with that," Ella replied, feeling slightly less dizzy but still not her best.

"Please El? I just think that if he knows you're feeling this way too then he may be able to get on with his life properly, and be normal and-"

"Alright, I'll talk to him," Ella interrupted, not wanting to hear intimate details of Miranda and Sirius' relationship as her 'get well soon card' indicated, "but you have to set it up and tell him what you've got planned because I think it would be just a bit suss if I went up to him and asked him about his deepest darkest emotions."

"Okay, it's a deal then," Miranda said smiling. "Thank you so much," she added and went to hug Ella who, still not completely stable, nearly fell over during the enthusiastic hug. Miranda swiftly let Ella go, waved her thanks and shot off toward the quidditch pitch once more.

"You would _think_ she was a caring person, doing all that wouldn't you?" Ebony said while Ella had a small smile on her face.

"That is why I tend to not think when Miranda is concerned. Someone will end up hurt and it will always be you." And with that comment, Ella and Ebony continued walking to their favourite spot beside the lake.

* * *

Two days later, Ella found herself waiting outside the charms classroom to catch up with Sirius. The Marauders usually sat up the back of the class, therefore were normally the last ones out of the room, and today was no exception. Remus lead the group and Sirius brought up the rear. Ella looked at him expectantly. Sirius noticed this and raised his eyebrows in question.

"Hey, um I was just wondering when you think the best time is to catch up? I know its Friday and all but it'll be better to just get it over and done with."

Sirius was clearly confused at Ella's proposition.

"Okay, I'm just going to ask. What on earth are you talking about?" Sirius didn't mean to sound so rude but the words came out before he could stop himself. Comprehension dawned on Ella.

"Oh. Miranda didn't tell you did she?" Sirius continued to look confused.

"Tell me what?" Ella simply sighed.

"Never mind. The next time you see her just say that we talked and sorted everything out. I'm pretty sure she won't pry any further. Um, bye." Ella said uncomfortably and turned to find her friends who were down the other end of the hallway. She heard footsteps quicken behind her and a hand lightly grabbed her shoulder to turn her around.

"I'm confused. Why should I tell Miranda that we talked and that everything is sorted?"

"Your girlfriend kind of had the idea that we should talk about the…accident and compare emotional scars. She reckons we've both been traumatised and changed by the event, so thought it may be nice to share our experiences so we can get out of our 'slump'."

"Okay, well let's do it. I feel fine, how bout you?"

"Yeah I feel fine too."

"Great, glad we had our talk."

"Me too."

"Think that'll keep Miranda happy?"

"We did what she said. We talked about how we felt and we both feel fine. She can't argue with that." Ella replied, a grin now spreading across her face.

"Great. I better go tell her we had a great talk then. Catch ya."

And with that comment, Sirius took off in the opposite direction. Both Ella and Sirius knew the other was lying.

* * *

Cheers erupted and the Gryffindor supporters hastily made their way onto the quidditch pitch to engulf the players. The match against Hufflepuff was extremely close, with Gryffindor winning only due to Jenkins catching the snitch. As Sirius hugged Jemima, Miranda came hurtling through the crowd to claim her boyfriend. With a hard stare toward the other beater, Miranda grabbed Sirius in a tight embrace, only to be dragged away immediately as James came to join in the festivities.

"Yeah! We won! How's it feel to be back on the team Pads?"

"That was probably the worst game I have played in my whole career. It was fucking brilliant mate! Even after how shit that was we still won! Jenkins is a fucking legend! I think this calls for a celebration!"

"Too right! EVERYONE, PARTY IN GRYFFINDOR COMMON ROOM TO CELEBRATE OUR MARGINAL VICTORY!" James shouted to the surrounding people. His response was a resounding cheer.

* * *

The party had started like any other; the first couple of hours were spent reliving the match with well animated conversations and a steady flow of butterbeer. Following these first rather tame hours was the introduction of the firewhisky which indicated the departure of those who were not up for a big night. It was ten o'clock and mostly sixth and seventh years remained, set on an all nighter. Ella was sitting with Margot, who was continually making doleful eyes toward Sirius and Miranda while Ebony and Jeremy were one more grope away from being told to get a room.

"What does he see in her?" Margot asked, once again introducing her favourite depressing topic when inebriated. Despite the fact that Margot had never had a detention and was the most studious of the three, she was able to consume her fair share of alcohol.

"You know, he may just give you a shot if you actually talked to him and let him know you existed," Ella replied.

"I couldn't do that! How embarrassing, he would know that I liked him. And besides, he's with that…girl now so it doesn't matter." Margot had a tendency to be an emotional drunk but Ella didn't bother to steer the conversation away; maybe this time she could finally convince her friend to wake up.

"And what would be bad about him knowing that you liked him? Merlin forbid something good may actually come of it and he ends up leaving Miranda and you both get married and have a load of offspring…you and Sirius I mean, not you and Miranda."

"Yeah but that's not going to happen and you know it."

"Of course it's not if you're going to do nothing about it! Live a little Margie! Go forth and conjugate! Even if it's not with Sirius, just…_conjugate!_" Ella received a very strange stare from her friend.

"What the hell are you on about Ella?"

"Look, there's that gorgeous Ravenclaw bloke over there…Sam…Simon…oh I can't remember his name but just go over there and-"

"Conjugate, I get it. But what about-"

"Bugger Sirius! If you're not going to make an effort with him then you should give up and look elsewhere. And besides, that bloke's been eyeing you all night so just go!" Ella said her last line rather forcefully and pushed Margot in the direction of the boy in question. As Ella was left on the sofa with the nauseating couple, she decided she better find some new partygoers to be her company. After she filled up her glass of course. After scanning the room, Ella found no suitable applicants so instead, joined Margot as she was looking rather uncomfortable with the attention her new friend was giving her.

"Sam is it?" Ella asked, her hand held out.

"Sean actually. You're Ella yeah?" the boy said and shook Ella's hand.

"That's me. Hey, did Margot tell you she could recite all the Quidditch finalists in the World league as far back as the 1920's?"

While Margot hoped Ella had come over to help her, Ella had only succeeded in making the boy more intrigued.

"Can you really?" Sean asked Margot. Looking rather sheepishly to Sean while somehow still managing a death glare toward Ella, Margot started up a conversation about Quidditch with her keen pursuer. Upon realising one of her favourite songs had come on, Ella took to the dance floor.

* * *

After a few hours of rather questionable dancing and many drinks later, very few party-people remained. Those still kicking on included the Marauders, Ella and her friends as well as a few people from the other houses. Everyone had gathered around one of the large coffee tables, sitting on the floor.

"Alright, I say we play a game," James announced. Lily, who was sitting beside James, gave him a hard but amused stare.

"Let me guess, you're idea of a good game would be spin the bottle or perhaps truth or dare?" James looked as though he was trying to come up with a witty answer but had nothing.

"Well what do you suggest then?"

"I suggest we sit here drinking like normal human beings and not oversexed teenagers. Or undersexed as it may be in some cases," Lily challenged James who was willing to continue this rather interesting discussion but was cut off by Sirius.

"Okay you horny toads, break it up! We all know I am the smartest person in the room so I shall decide what we play."

"Yeah and my real name is Boris," Ella meant to say in an undertone but apparently she had said it loud enough for everyone to hear. Sirius was about to retort but Remus was now the one to interrupt.

"Wait, what is your real name?" he asked. Ella looked at him quizzically. How was it that through seven years with the same group of people, they had never once heard her real name? Maybe it was because Ella knew her name came directly after James' on the role call and automatically jumped in to say 'Ella Powell, present'. Without realising it, she had hidden her name from everyone. Rather amused by this fact, Ella had an idea.

"Okay then, drinking game. We'll go round in a circle, everyone can have a guess at my name, if you get it wrong, you take a shot. Everyone in?"

There was a chorus of 'yeah' and 'alright then'. From her left, Ella heard a shocked outcry.

"You mean we were friends for how long and you never told me Ella wasn't your real name?" Miranda asked, almost hurt by the fact.

"Oh Mindy, only my family call me by my whole name. Ella is my name, just not my full name."

"I bet those two know your real name though," Miranda said, pointing toward Margot and Ebony.

"Well, yeah they do," Ella answered matter of factly, "which reminds me, you guys can't play because you'll win straight away. Anyway, Mindy are you gunna play?" Miranda looked as if she wanted nothing less in her whole life. Trying to disguise her hurt, she turned to Sirius.

"Did you want to come back to my dorm?" Everyone understood the proposition she was making. Sirius, being happily drunk and having a good time, understood what she was implying but decided he would rather continue celebrating with his friends.

"It's alright babe, you can go to bed if you want, I think I'll stay here and celebrate. You can sleep in my dorm, all the boys are down here so they won't bother you." Miranda looked as though she had been slapped.

"No, I think I'll just go back to my common room," she answered, looking none too pleased. Before she could turn around, Sirius dragged her down to the floor and gave her a long heartfelt kiss, almost as an apology.

"We're okay?" he whispered to her. Looking into Sirius' eyes, Miranda bit back the retort she had formed and simply nodded, although she still looked a little sour. With a short goodbye to the rest of the group, she got up and left to return to the Hufflepuff common room. Sirius had watched his girlfriend exit through the portrait hole and only turned around when he heard Ella's voice.

"I can't believe _you_ of all people turned down some action to stay here," she said, almost in awe. Sirius looked at her and a smirk came across his face.

"Well you're one to talk, you looked pretty cosy with that Wayne guy on the dance floor before, I'm pretty sure he wanted to do more than kiss you."

Ella was in a stunned silence.

"Touche. Okay are we gonna play this game or what?" she said, trying to change the topic as quickly as possible.

"You can't change the topic that easily. Anyway, I stayed because I think I know what your name is." Sirius challenged.

"Well we'll see about that," was all Ella said and the game kicked off. Jeremy went first.

"Eleanor?"

"Nope." And a shot was taken. James' turn.

"Eliza?"

"Nope?" And a shot was taken. Lily's turn.

"Elizabeth?"

"This is quite fun, no." and a shot was taken. Peter's turn.

"Isabelle?"

"Nah-uh." And a shot was taken…with a light bit of choking at the end. Remus' turn.

"Isabella?"

"If it was Isabella I would have given Peter the points. Nope." And a shot was taken. Margot was skipped and it was Sean's turn.

"Oh you guys have taken all the good ones. Um, ooh Elaine?"

"Amateurs," Sirius commented, as it was his turn next. Ella was more polite and answered with a simple nod. Sirius looked at Ella with his biggest smirk. Ella filled up his shot glass, confident he wouldn't guess her name right. Sirius remained in silence to increase the effect as everyone was now staring at him, awaiting his answer. Finally, he leant toward Ella slightly.

"I bet your name is Esmeralda, you know from that hunchback story."

Now it was Ella who looked as though she had been slapped. Ignoring the cries of 'don't tell me he's right' and 'is that really your name?' it was now Sirius who filled up Ella's shot glass. Ella rolled her eyes at Sirius and then took her shot, which burned her throat and left a strange aftertaste. Sirius then took his shot.

"You didn't need to shot, you got it right," Ella said.

"Pfft, like I wasn't going to drink it anyway," came Sirius' reply. Lily's voice then interrupted their private conversation.

"All of us seventh years are here, we should get a photo!"

"Oh that's a great idea, alright, who's got a camera?" replied Ebony.

"Hang on, I'll go get mine," Peter's voice piped up, and he proceeded to run up the spiral staircase to his dormitory and returned a minute later holding a rather flash camera.

Meanwhile, Sirius had been continually making faces at Ella like a four year old.

"I knew your name! I knew your name!"

"Yeah well I bet you cheated!"

"I swear I didn't cheat!"

"Then how the hell did you guess it? It's not a very common name."

Sirius didn't answer for a moment as he was deep in thought. How had he known that was her name? Eventually he answered, rather more serious than before.

"I don't know. For some reason you reminded me of bells. You know, 'THE BELLS THE BELLS' and I just sort of guessed…or something."

As the Gryffindor seventh years positioned themselves on and around the main sofa, Sirius continued teasing Ella.

"Anyway," he said behind Remus' head, as he was now between Ella and Sirius on the sofa, "_how _I figured your name out is irrelevant. I still guessed right."

With this comment, Ella chose to ignore Sirius. As retaliation for not listening to him, Sirius began poking Ella in the arm, to which she would turn and glare but burst into a fit of giggles anyway. Jeremy's voice came out of the void.

"Okay guys, say Quidditch!"

* * *

Ella woke the next morning to an enormous racket. She went to pull her curtains shut but found there were no curtains. She opened one eye and was met with a wall of maroon. She had fallen asleep in the common room on the sofa. Turning over, she noticed Sirius sleeping in one of the armchairs, looking rather uncomfortable. In the other armchair, looking even more uncomfortable, were Ebony and Jeremy. Ella thought back to the night before. She remembered chatting to everyone after the photo was taken, then she had another drink…then another. Everything until then and now was completely blank. 

It seemed everyone else was woken by the loud noises apparently being made by early rising first years. Ella looked at the clock; eleven thirty. Maybe the first years weren't early rising after all.

"Oh, I don't feel too well," came Ebony's voice on the couch.

"Really? I feel fine," Jeremy replied and received a punch in the chest for his comment.

"Ahh, why is the room spinning? How much did we drink last night?" Sirius asked. Ebony and Jeremy looked from Sirius and Ella with a rather suspicious smile on her face.

"Well, we stopped rather early, but you two kept going. You were getting along like old chums last night." Ebony's smile was a little too smug for Ella's liking. What had happened? Ella sat up. Bad idea, the room was indeed spinning.

"I recall music. Why the hell were we playing 'The Sound of Music'?" Ebony looked at Ella strangely now.

"We didn't. We were playing the Rusty Cauldrons and Bowie." Ella furrowed her brow then shook her head to clear her thoughts. Bad idea yet again, the room now spun faster.

"Oh right. Clearly I don't remember as much as I though then."

"I think we were on the couch talking, right?" Sirius directed the comment toward Ella, but aimed the confirmation at Ebony. Ebony nodded.

"See I remember!" But that was all Sirius remembered. For the life of him he couldn't recall what they had spoken about; all he was sure of was that it would have been a conversation that could only be interesting when drunk.

"Ugh, bugger this, I'm going for a shower. All I can smell is alcohol." And with this comment, Sirius somehow got himself upright and almost crawled up the stairs to his dormitory.  
---

Later that day, Ella had to find out what happened the night before. Small flashes of memory returned but she didn't trust her judgement. She and Ebony were now freshly showered and the only two left in the girl's dormitory.

"Hey Ebs, I know I sound really neurotic and all, but could you fill me in on last night. I can't get over the feeling that I did something I shouldn't have or something. And I still swear there was 'Sound of Music' music."

Ebony was the only person Ella would tell any of her insecurities to. With anyone else, Ella would hold all her emotions in and pretend everything was rosy, she even did this with Ebony on occasion, but she saw right through the farce. The feeling of uncertainty that was plaguing Ella was far too much for her to hold all in. And she was rather hungover so didn't feel like playing pretend today.

"Don't worry El. You and Sirius were just talking, but thank god Margy had gone to bed because I'm pretty sure she'd be a little pissed with how well you two were getting on." Ella opened her mouth to interrupt but Ebony continued, "AND like I said, you have nothing to worry about, nothing happened, you two were just having a good laugh…and sort of almost flirting but I think that was just coz you were both drunk, and we would have stopped you if something more had happened. Merlin knows Miranda wouldn't have approved because she was the one wanting you two to talk, imagine if youse kissed or something, she would have practically set you up together!"

Ebony's comical rants always made Ella feel better. There was something in the ease that Ebony talked about difficult situations that made Ella always feel as though she had overreacted. It helps to have friends who keep your feet firmly on the ground.

"So, have I convinced you?"

"I think so. Although I still say I remember hearing 'The Sound of Music'."

"Okay, that is where I have to stop you and say, your drunk mind was playing tricks on you. Who the hell would play that music at a party?"

* * *

It had taken all day, but Ella was finally feeling a tad better and decided she would go down to the great hall for dinner. She ran into her friends at the top of one of the major staircases and, in their true style, proceeded to have a lengthy gossip before dinner. Halfway through, Ella began to feel slightly dizzy again. Ella leaned against the banister to steady herself. She had been doing this all day so her friends were not too concerned. As Ella looked up, Sirius and his friends walked past. They paused briefly to say hello and then continued to their destination. Upon seeing Sirius smile and greet them all, Ella felt as if her brain was no longer attached to her body. It was lucky that she held the banister as she would have fallen to the floor. A memory flashed in her mind.

"_You okay Sirius?" _

"_I would kiss you right now if I didn't have a girlfriend."_

"_Well it's lucky you do have a girlfriend because it saves me having to reject you." _

"_Well that wouldn't matter, I'd just go find Margot. She'd be up for it."_

"_No doubt she would be." _

"_You should probably rest. You have the couch, I'll take the armchair this time." Sirius said._

"_Sirius?"_

"_Hm?"_

"_Would you settle for a hug? ... We'll be okay. I'm sure we will" _

As the last words were ringing in her ears, the room did one final spin and then, nothing.

Ella had feinted.

* * *

**A/N: **I have a guilty little secret to share...i just finished writing this but didn't get round to re-reading it so i apologise for any huge mistakes (Although i have noticed i normally have a few little ones anyway...) ANYWAY so, any of you have any guesses as to what will happen next? Didn't realise i liked doing the cliffhanger sort of thing, but it is kind of fun if not mean for all you wonderful readers!!! I have no extremely revealing information about this chapter because everything seemed a bit more straightforward in this chapter so i shall leave the questions to you all!!!

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR YOUR REVIEWS!!! I cannot thank you all enough for your very kind words, and i LOVE your enthusiasm! I reply to everyone (except those who sign in anonymously because clearly i cant lol) so if you have questions i would love to (attempt) to answer them.


	16. Yellow Subconscious

**Disclaimer: **I've been away from this site so long I think I've forgotten how to write a disclaimer…so just use your imagination people!!!

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Chapter Sixteen:**

"Maybe we should take her to the hospital wing?"

"And what do we tell Pomfrey? 'You see we had this massive party last night, with alcohol we got by sneaking out of the castle, Ella drank too much, is hungover and collapsed' That's not going to go down too well now is it? She'll probably think its alcohol poisoning or something!"

"What so we should just leave her here? Or leave her to die because we were too scared we'd get in trouble?"

"Guys I think we should at least get her out of the corridor."

"Good point Moony. Sirius, you're the tallest, you get her up."

"Bullshit, you know I'm a twig, I couldn't carry her. You do it, you're the one with muscles, big man."

"But if Lily sees me carrying-"

"Yeah because the first thing she's going to think of is you and Ella are having a relationship. You wanker, she'll see you're helping an unconscious girl and think the world of you."

"Will you boys stop being so fucking petty? Ella is currently on the ground, one of you just pick her up and take her to the hospital wing okay?" Ebony spoke with such finality that everyone was silenced.

"I don't think she'd want to go to the hospital wing. If it were me – I think we should just take her to the common room. Everyone's at dinner, they won't see." Ebony looked toward Sirius and understood. They had spent enough time in the hospital wing and, just like Sirius, Ella was sure to be sick of the place as well.

"Okay, common room it is then."

The voices were slightly muffled and appeared to come from far above her, but Ella could hear them nonetheless.

"Don't worry, no one will have to carry me, I'm fine."

Margot screamed as she heard Ella talk and crouched down to hug her friend. Ebony gave Ella a death glare as if she was angry she had put her through another scare. Her glare soften immediately when she spoke.

"Ella, what happened?"

It took a while for Ella to realise she had feinted but her memory slowly returned. She rubbed her forehead as she sat up and addressed the small crowd now crouched around her.

"I don't know. I saw-" she looked toward Sirius and pointed to him ever so slightly "-and then I remembered that – and then I – oh I have no idea. All I know is that I remembered something, then felt really dizzy and then heard you all arguing. Can someone help me up?" Immediately, about five sets of hands were hurrying to help Ella up.

"What did you remember?" Sirius asked curiously. While the others hadn't seemed to notice Ella's gesture toward him, he certainly didn't miss it. Ella, now upright and leaning on Ebony, seemed as though she was about to answer but then paused. She was going to tell him that she remembered some of their conversation from the night before, but considering what she remembered, maybe the memory was best left forgotten. Instead, she lied.

"I'm not really sure. I know it was some of our conversation last night but it's really hazy. When I saw you on the stairs, it must have made me remember, then I got really dizzy and – " she trailed off.

Sirius looked disappointed with her answer, but decided not to pry further. Considering his friends had told him that he and Ella had been quite friendly the night before, he was intrigued as to what they had spoken about. What do strangers talk about?

* * *

Lying in bed that night, Ella was afraid to close her eyes. Too many times she had lost time itself by simply falling asleep; first she lost a month, and while earlier that day she was only out minutes rather than weeks, time was still stolen from her. While Ella was naturally clumsy, she also couldn't get used to the constant dizzy spells. Her friends told her it would go away, that it was just a side effect from being asleep for so long, that her body needed time to adjust. But how long will it take to adjust? Ella wanted nothing more than to talk to Sirius about how he was coping. Did _he_ have the same dizzy spells? Was _he_ afraid to sleep? Considering how impeccable he looked, Ella thought not. What was worse was that she felt she couldn't talk to Sirius about what happened; not only because she hardly knew him but also because of what she remembered before she feinted. Ella decided she had thought enough for one night, and not wanting sleep to take away her thoughts, she resorted to counting the number of rings holding up her curtain.

"Sixty seven," she whispered.

She had counted the rings many times before and always arrived at the same number. It was a comfort to know that no matter what happened, some things didn't change.

* * *

Ella was walking down the corridor, quite happily contemplating what would be for dessert at dinner when a hand on her shoulder made her immediately forget about trifle.

"Oh Ella, thank goodness! I've been looking for someone to help me for ages, I'm in quite a hurry."

"Oh hey Miranda, what is it?"

"Um I sort of said I'd meet up with Sirius but I can't now. I have detention. Long story. It involves a second year, some make up and a very unfortunate result which apparently is my fault. Anyway, I was wondering if you could do me a favour and tell Sirius I won't be coming? I just don't want him waiting for three hours without me turning up and him thinking I was angry with him or stood him up or something."

Miranda looked very hopeful at Ella while still managing to maintain a hurried manner.

"You always were one to get detention for really strange reasons," Ella said.

"You can talk! Anyway, I would _really _appreciate if you could do that for me." Ella didn't answer immediately. Ever since she remembered her and Sirius' conversation from the other night (or what she thought was their conversation from the other night), she had been avoiding any personal interaction with him. She was worried that she would be nervous around him; different because of what he had said. Of course, he hadn't remembered the conversation which was a bonus, but whether he remembered what he said or not, it didn't change the fact that he was apparently thinking of Ella in that manner. Never one to want to disappoint, Ella replied cheerily.

"Yeah sure I can. Um, where will I find him?"

"Oh great. Third floor, you know that suit of armour with the axe down the end of the corridor? The door just opposite that," Miranda said this very quickly as she looked over her shoulder. Professor Spektor was coming around the corner. Apparently Miranda was supposed to already be waiting in his office.

"Ooh got to be off, thanks for that!" And with that final note, Miranda shot off up the stairs. Ella was left to wonder what she had gotten herself into.

* * *

Apparently Miranda forgot to mention that there were several doors at the end of the third floor corridor which lay opposite a suit of armour with an axe. After trying at least five different doors, all of which contained no Sirius on the other side, Ella was now in front of the final door. Ella stood opposite the door, knowing that on the other side Sirius was awaiting his girlfriend so he could…well Ella didn't want to think about that. Deciding that maybe Sirius wasn't on the other side after all, Ella quickly opened the door.

"Siri-"

She never got to finish his name as a pair of hands snaked around her waist and held her tight to a warm chest. Before she had time to protest, her mouth was covered by desperate lips. Ella made a squealing sound and figure stopped abruptly. A hand left Ella's waist and a moment later, wand light filled the room.

A dazed and confused Sirius looked down upon her. His eyes widened rather comically as the wand light revealed to him the girl in his arms. There was only one thing to do; he screamed. Ella was deafened and almost thrown to the opposite wall. She stood staring at Sirius while he started freaking out.

"Oh shit. This isn't good. I thought you were…Miranda- oh fuck she's going to kill me. What have I done?" Sirius ranted while running his hands through his hair. Because the wand was still lit in his hand, his movements created a dizzying flashing light effect which didn't bode well with Ella. She grabbed his hand to stop his movements. Predictably, Sirius flinched as she grabbed his wrist.

"Could you please calm down? I'm not a fan of seizures myself."

Sirius looked at the wand in his hand.

"Oh, sorry," he said lamely. His eyebrows furrowed the whole time he watched Ella. It was now his turn to stare at her. After a long moment, he had another sudden outburst.

"I'm sorry, I thought you were Miranda. You two are around the same height, well when she's wearing heels at least, and she was the only one who knew where I was and she was supposed to come here so we could – and I thought something was off because she's never reacted like that with me and – hang on, what are _you _doing here? Who just opens random doors and calls out a guy's name? I mean, you can't blame me for what happened, I'm innocently waiting for my girlfriend to come along when-"

"I'd hardly call what you two had planned as 'innocent'," Ella interrupted. Sirius considered this for a moment.

"Well…okay then, I was guiltily waiting for my girlfriend to come along and you turn up and I-"

"Stick your tongue down my throat?" Sirius looked scathingly at her.

"Well I did think you were my girlfriend."

"And you often kiss her like that when she walks into a room?" It took him a moment to answer.

"Well, when she walks into this room, yeah." Ella had to contain a smile at this comment. He looked so uncomfortable and rather agitated. She was about to say something reassuring when he unknowingly cut her off.

"I don't cheat. If I'd known it was you I would never have done that. Oh god, Miranda's going to kill me." At this point, Sirius covered his face with his hands and slid down the wall until he was an awkward dark shadow on the floor. Ella immediately felt sympathy for him. She sat down against her own wall so that they were now a couple of metres apart. Usually in these situations, Ella would give the person a comforting hug or pat on the shoulder, but she felt that would be rather inappropriate at this point in time.

"You seem to really love Miranda," Ella offered, thinking about his reaction. Sirius looked up from his hands, his eyes wide with what appeared to be shame.

"I do," he said earnestly. This comment made Ella feel rather silly for thinking Sirius ever had feelings that were more than friendly for her.

"How do you cope with the rumours then?"

"You mean the rumours that I chase anything in a skirt, cheat on my girlfriends and have fucked half the female population of Hogwarts? Yeah, they suck, but if people want to believe I'm some kind of sex god then I'm not going to correct them. It's kind of a great reputation to maintain in years to come. Maybe I'll come back in twenty years and be a balding, half insane bachelor but people will still be able to say 'well he went to school with us and he was quite the ladies man',"

Ella gave a chuckle at this.

"You really don't care what other people think hey?"

"Oh no, I care what people think, I just don't care what most people think. I care about the opinions of the right people." As Sirius said this, Ella saw his face fall. His hands once again returned to his face. Ella suddenly realised just how much Sirius valued his friends; Miranda included.

"Look, I know it was an accident. There was nothing to it, you thought I was Miranda, it could happen to anyone. I wont tell if you wont." Sirius thought about this for a second, and his hands once again left his face. He managed a half smile.

"Thanks, but it doesn't change the fact that I still kissed you,"

"Well I wouldn't say you kissed me, more like…mauled me. I think there is a difference,"

"Excuse me, I'll have you know I am an excellent kisser,"

"Well clearly those rumours about you being a sex god are simply rumours then, because there was just way too much tongue for my liking,"

This comment made Sirius burst into a fit of laughter.

"Duly noted. If I ever kiss you again, there will be less tongue,"

"Lucky I am comforted by the knowledge that this situation shall not present itself again,"

"That makes two of us then. Hang on, what are you doing here anyway? How'd you know I was here?" Sirius asked suspiciously.

"Oh," Ella laughed, "I ran into Miranda on the way down to dinner. She pulled me up and asked me to find you and tell you she couldn't make it tonight because she has detention. Something about make-up and first years or something."

"Ah, it happened again then did it?"

"Why, what did she do?"

"Oh never mind. Let's just say she has been trying to make people up for the greater good…but she seems to be unsuccessful with her products so far."

"Huh."

There was another long silence in which Ella was contemplating the most polite way to excuse herself. Fortunately, Sirius was already pulling himself up.

"Although it's been, surreal, sitting here having a conversation with you, I must say I'm really hungry and wouldn't mind getting something to eat. You were heading down to the great hall yeah?"

"Ah, yeah I was,"

"Great, I can't think of anything more awkward than to now escort you to dinner. What do you say?"

Ella had to hand it to Sirius; he was very good at dealing with rather strange situations.

"Okay then," she replied, joining Sirius in an upright position. Despite Sirius' now nonchalant manner regarding the accidental kiss, this didn't stop him from checking whether the corridor was clear before he let Ella follow him out of the cupboard. The last thing he needed was for someone to speculate that they had been doing something much more sinister than talking. Seeing that the coast was clear, he opened the door fully and allowed Ella to exit the cupboard. They walked toward the great hall in silence. Ella was surprised it wasn't more awkward.

Ella saw Ebony and Margot sitting in their usual spot at the Gryffindor table and was quite happy to join them.

"You finally have that talk with Sirius then? Dear Miranda will be proud."

"Ah, I'm not sure she'd be proud exactly," Ella mumbled.

"Huh?" Ebony questioned with a mouth full of pie.

"I said we didn't talk exactly." Ella immediately regretted what she said, not meaning to use the double entendre. Upon hearing this, Margot looked a little hurt.

"What do you mean Ella?" She questioned with pained eyes. It appeared that despite Sean's advances and Margot's apparent response to him, she still wanted none other than Sirius Black.

"I didn't mean that Margy. I just meant that we didn't talk about…the accident. Miranda asked me to tell Sirius she had gotten detention and we just had a quick chat then came down here."

Ella was glad she didn't go red easily, for she felt the heat rising to her cheeks at the lie. Despite the fact that the kiss was clearly an accident, she hated keeping something like this from her friends. What was worse was that she felt as though she had betrayed Margot. Margot simply looked on in some form of relief, as though she silently berated herself for thinking something so silly.

"Oh, yeah. Sorry to jump to conclusions El. I just thought you had some juicy gossip for us!"

"Not this time Margy," Ella replied. Although Ella knew she was the worst offender at creating a façade, it hurt her when Margot kept her feelings from her. This time it hurt even more to know that Margot so easily expected Ella of having betrayed their friendship by being with Sirius. What hurt Ella the most was that she felt as though she _had _betrayed the friendship. It was now Ella's turn to put on her own façade for the rest of dinner.

* * *

Now in the cupboard with the real Miranda, Sirius was contemplative. While the familiar shiver went down his neck as Miranda kissed him harder; her hands finding their way through his hair and down his jaw line, he couldn't keep his mind on the rather enjoyable task at hand. Noticing his lack of enthusiasm, Miranda pushed him further into the wall and slid her hands under his school shirt. Again, despite the pleasant feelings coursing through his body, Sirius couldn't keep his mind clear. Miranda suddenly stopped what she was doing and looked directly into Sirius' eyes. She sighed, as though she was a child whose mother wouldn't understand that if she didn't get that lollypop, she would clearly die.

"What's wrong babe?" It was now Sirius' turn to sigh as he buried his face into Miranda's neck.

"Sorry, I've been having an off day."

"What about yesterday then?" Sirius thought about how he had been acting the day before, and the day before that. Ever since he accidentally kissed Ella, he had no motivation for anything. Surprisingly, it wasn't the kiss he had constantly mulled over in his mind, but the circumstances surrounding him once he came out of the coma.

"You could say I've been having an off week, sorry," he mumbled into her hair. Miranda pulled away from him slightly so that he was now looking at her again.

"An off week? _Just _a week? Honey, you've been like this ever since you came back!" Her tone was sharper now.

"What do you mean?" Sirius was now filled with curiosity which bordered annoyance.

"I have tried everything to make to feel better! I've met up with you every day, done everything I know you liked. I mean why do you think I've been watching you play quidditch, and going to your practises? I wanted to make you feel as though I was interested in your hobbies!"

Miranda never used to watch him play quidditch. He hadn't noticed that she now attended every practise and game. Before he could retort, or comfort her, Miranda continued.

"And meeting up here with you almost every day! I mean, believe me, I like nothing more than kissing you and touching you and being with you, but there is only so much a girl can take! I mean, I come in here, you stick your tongue down my throat and seem attentive but it's like you're not there! Like your mind is somewhere else _all _the time!"

Completely forgetting the point of what Miranda was saying, Sirius addressed her insult of his kissing technique.

"I thought you liked that?"

"_Excuse me?_"

"The way I kissed you," Sirius replied casually but mentally noting that maybe he needed to change his style slightly. Two girls had complained about his tongue in one week, that couldn't be good.

"Have you listened to a word I've said? You're vacant! You – you're not okay, you're not the same, you're not…Sirius."

"I can be serious if you want me to be babe," Sirius replied, more out of impulse than anything, and moved to embrace his girlfriend again. Miranda pulled away from him.

"Stop doing that! You're always doing that! I'm trying to tell you that you need help and you're making stupid jokes!"

Sirius suddenly felt attacked. He felt all the guilt he had repressed since the week before build up in him. This combined with annoyance, rage and something he couldn't quite place, made him explode in an emotional outburst. He tried to stem the flow but found he couldn't.

"What do you want me to say? That ever since I came back that I feel like I'm lost. That I missed out on so much by being asleep all the fucking time, but like I've missed out on a lifetime because I woke up. I feel tired all the time, I'm afraid to sleep, I have dizzy spells that make me feel like I'm going to vomit at any given moment! I'm having trouble concentrating in classes, I've completely lost my appetite so I force myself to eat and I constantly feel as though there is something weighing me down, that I can't be happy!"

Sirius stood there breathing heavily from the intensity of the outburst while Miranda stood stony faced, staring at him.

"What so I'm weighing you down am I?"

Sirius had to resist the urge to shake her.

"Did I say that?" he said sharply.

"Well you may as well have Sirius because I certainly haven't been making you happy!"

"Oh for fucks sake, it's not always about you! I'm telling you shit I've never told anyone and you're sitting here complaining that _you're _the one to be feeling sorry for because you think you're not loved? I do love you Miranda, but I'm here to tell you that my problems go a bit deeper than the power of a girlfriend can heal okay? Can't you understand that? Look at me, I'm screwed up! You can't fix everything that's wrong with me, you just can't. I am who I am, and yeah, I may have changed a bit but you're either going to have to stand by me and understand that it's going to take time for me to get back to my normal fucked up self or you can leave!"

Sirius knew he was being irrational. He knew he said things he would regret; was already regretting, but the emotion flooded out of him. This was the frustration he had felt for so long; originating even before the coma, from his family, the injustice of his friend being a werewolf, of losing his brother to the dark arts, of everything.

Miranda still hadn't moved. Sirius couldn't take it.

"Say something, please Mindy," he urged desperately, hating that his voice sounded so weak. He wanted her to say she'll stay with him, that she'll stand by him and wait, that she will love him no matter what, that she couldn't imagine her life without him. All he got was a strangled sob before she rushed out of the room. Sirius stood looking at the door for minutes, but it may as well have been hours.

* * *

It was indeed hours before Sirius left the confines of the room on the third floor. As he approached the portrait hole, his watch read one o'clock in the morning. As he passed through the portrait hole, he eyed the stairs to the boy's dormitory. Knowing that James would wake up when he arrived upstairs and want to know why he was so late to bed (James could be quite the mother duck when he wanted to be), Sirius opted for the common room sofa. He made his way to the maroon furniture and collapsed into it. As he sat there, head in his hands, a noise to his left made him alert again. Ella lay sprawled out on the floor, a sofa cushion supporting her head while a book lay open on her chest. Apparently Sirius' movements had woken her. Her eyes squinted at him sleepily while he simply stared at her.

"What are you doing up so late?" she asked him.

"Just got in," he replied.

"What's the time?"

"One."

"I fell asleep before one o'clock? I'm doing good then." At this comment, Ella removed the book from her chest and sat on the floor, leaning against the armchair. Ella felt suddenly uncomfortable. Sirius simply continued to stare at her with big, sad eyes. She wasn't sure if he was studying her or if he was silently begging her to ask him what was wrong. She preferred the latter; while both options were awkward, she felt the second option gave her more to work with.

"Are you okay?" she asked tentatively. He looked as though someone had died. Maybe they had. Sirius was about to open his mouth to answer but decided against it. Instead he shook his head and then buried his head in his hands again. Although Ella couldn't see his face, she could tell he wasn't crying as his body was extremely still. She couldn't explain it, but simply watching him in his silent reverie made her feel like her mere presence would make all the difference. She could have up and left him for the warm confines of her four poster bed, but she chose to stay. The silence was broken suddenly which made Ella jump.

"FUUUCK!"

With this outburst, Sirius' hands moved away from his face as he repositioned himself against the backrest of the sofa; his arms and legs sprawled out in exhausted despair. Without a word, Ella joined him on the sofa, watching him stare about the room. She figured she would just wait until he wanted to talk about whatever happened. Eventually he spoke.

"Did you know there are twelve Gryffindor emblems in the common room?"

"Actually there are thirteen. You missed the one on the tapestry behind us."

Sirius turned his head and noticed he had, in fact, missed one. Again there was silence.

"She didn't want to wait," Sirius began, "Miranda, she didn't want to wait for me. She just, gave up." Ella contemplated this comment for a moment, and strangely enough, she had a response for him.

"Just because she gave up on you, doesn't mean she doesn't love you." Ella couldn't help but think she was referring to much more than the issue with Miranda.

"But she didn't understand," Sirius added quietly.

"What didn't she understand?"

"Me. How I felt." Ella took a moment to contemplate his comment.

"Did you let her in? Did you tell her how you felt?" Again there was a pause before an answer came.

"She knows now. Anyway, I shouldn't have had to tell her, she should just know." He knew he sounded pathetic but he couldn't help himself.

"Did you know how _she_ felt?" As Ella said this, Sirius turned his gaze away from her.

"If you didn't know how she felt, how do you expect her to know how you felt?"

"I don't know, she should just, _know!" _

Ella found this side to Sirius mesmerising; he was so different from the persona he portrayed to the rest of the school and yet she felt as though she knew more about this side of him. She couldn't look away from him.

"And how do you feel?" Her heartbeat quickened at this utterance, for it felt she was asking so much more than what the simple question implied. What her intended meaning was, she didn't know, but it made her nervous.

"I don't know. Everything I feel seems to be a product of the feeling I can't explain." Ella was surprised she knew what he meant, for the words themselves seemed to make little sense.

"It's loss, I've figured out. It feels like loss," Ella said, voicing exactly how she had felt since returning from her coma.

At this moment, Sirius looked back to Ella. Loss. That waswhat he felt. He couldn't explain what he had lost, but her words had been perfect. Ella was able to tell him how he was feeling, where Miranda could not. Ella _knew._ A wave of appreciation and something else washed over Sirius and he couldn't think of anything but Ella. Here was a girl who he felt he barely knew and yet, she _knew. _Sirius wanted nothing more at that moment than to know what Ella was feeling; ironic considering his sudden interest and possible attraction to her was a result of her knowing exactly how _he _felt.

"Esmeralda?" Ella turned her perfectly composed face toward him and raised her eyebrows.

"Yeah?"

Sirius had merely wanted her to look at him, he hadn't thought past calling her name. Her face was impassive. Her eyes were unreadable. He wanted to know. The solution came to him. Keeping her gaze, he reached out for her wrist, gently placing two fingers just below the heel of her hand. A jolt of joy flowed through him as he felt her heart beat flutter under his touch. She couldn't lie now. As with many things recently, Sirius couldn't explain the sudden feeling of wanting that overtook him, and now he knew she felt something similar. Sirius shifted so he could face her at a more comfortable angle. Ella's eyes widened as she registered how close he was and realised she couldn't hide from him. He was staring at her so intently. His hand never left her wrist as he leaned in and placed a light kiss on her temple. He was spurred on by the extra flutter he felt in her wrist. Next, he placed a kiss on her turned cheek. He didn't need her heartbeat to tell him what he wanted to know; this time her short breaths were enough to give her away.

He leant his forehead against hers, breathing as quickly as she was. He was about to lean his head down to kiss her but she beat him to it, angling her head upwards so her lips met his. The kiss was soft; almost innocent. Ella's previously unoccupied hands now made their way up Sirius' arms to rest about his neck. Taking this as encouragement, Sirius took the liberty of extending the kiss. As his lips moved against hers, he thought about nothing else. Taking note of his promise the last time he spoke to her, he kept his tongue in his own mouth, preferring to indulge in the warm sensations she sent through his body by such a simple action. As air became a necessity, they broke apart only far enough to catch their breath. The activity was quickly resumed with newfound enthusiasm; Ella forgetting her own complaints the week before and running her tongue along his bottom lip. It didn't take him long to catch on. They were suddenly kissing each other with passion neither could have imagined five minutes before. The loss they both shared seemed to lessen as they lost themselves in each other.

Sirius' only thought was that he couldn't find enough of Ella to touch, his hands roaming up her arms and down her waist. He leaned against her so that she began to fall backwards on the sofa, never once breaking the kiss. As Sirius' weight pressed down on Ella, she had her first thought for ages. There she was simply sleeping, when a distressed Sirius entered her empty common room and now she was making out with him; something she thought she would never and could never do, even after the third floor incident – especially after the third floor incident. Suddenly, the guilt she had masked from Margot came flooding back. The third floor incident; the accidental kiss that made her feel terrible, like she had betrayed her friend. This time was unexpected but definitely no accident, therefore the guilt she felt now was very much real.

"Sirius," she said rather breathlessly…and lamely in her opinion.

"Mmm?" he answered, the whole situation seemed rather familiar. He saw her open her mouth to continue but he kissed her instead. It took Ella a while to remember she was supposed to be saying something, but when she did, she stopped abruptly.

"We can't do this. We just can't."

As if knowing this was coming, Sirius sat upright while Ella composed herself.

"I know," was all he said, and he knew it was the truth. Ella raised herself to sit beside him, resting her head in the crook of his shoulder.

"What do we do now?" she asked.

"I suppose we go to our dorm rooms and forget about it."

"Yeah."

Neither could explain what had come over them. Neither really wanted to forget, but something within them made them understand that maybe they had to.

* * *

**A/N: **Hello!!!! Yes I am back, please don't kill me or threaten me with any kind of sharp utensil, because I had half this chapter written and simply couldn't finish it for ages but here it is!!! Don't stress, this isn't the end of the story, the chapter just needed that to end it…there is more coming folks!!! Next chapter will be VERY revealing so hopefully you wont be mad that you didn't find out much in this chapter. I was thinking the Sirius/Ella moments were a tad unrealistic (as they don't really know each other in this time) but that is how I wrote it and I intended it to be more an act of their sub-conscious than anything else…let me know what you think!

Okay, bonus points for people who find the Led Zeppelin song title I inadvertently put in this chapter (it may be tricky to find as it isn't a reference…).

THANK YOU so much to reviewers, you guys are amazing and if I hadn't gotten any reviews I wouldn't have continued writing this story after the first chapter…and you really spurred me out of my writers block!!! There is not much to go in the story so I hope you stick around til the end!!! Love to know what you all think!


	17. Final countdown

**Disclaimer: **Oh how sad! This will be my penultimate disclaimer! You know it's not mine so I don't need to tell you…does anyone even read these things anyway??

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**Chapter Seventeen: Final Countdown**

When Ella woke the next morning, she was rather cheerful. She had finally fallen asleep before one in the morning and had had the most wonderful sleep. She didn't want to get out of bed as the pillow had positioned itself comfortably about her head and her blankets had never been warmer. She was slightly perplexed at this as she was sure she went down to the common room the previous night. Reluctantly, she threw back the covers and her curtain as she knew she would miss out on the best selection if she was late to breakfast. It was already panning out to be a good day; maybe they would even have pancakes at breakfast. Margot was already up and dressed; Ebony was already at breakfast.

"Morning sunshine!" Margot greeted as she saw Ella reflected in the mirror she was currently brushing her hair in front of.

"Morning," Ella managed. She may get up slightly earlier than she would like to in order to get the best breakfast foods, but this didn't mean she liked doing it.

"Always the chipper person in the morning aren't you?"

Ella didn't reply, simply threw her pillow at Margot's head.

"Hey! What are you doing here anyway? I thought you went down to the common room last night?"

Ella thought for a moment, her brow furrowed.

"Yeah, I thought so too. I must have come back up at some stage. Oh god, I hope I'm not sleepwalking again." Ella said horrified. Margot laughed.

"I don't know, I always thought that was quite amusing. Remember that time you said you were baking a cake and it turned out you were in the bathroom mixing shampoo and powder and toothpaste into the basin?"

A pillow once again found its way to Margot's face.

"Like I could forget that. Mrs. McGonagall found out and made me clean it up and gave me my first detention."

"Oh yeah, I forgot about the detention. Second year was so long ago now!"

"You're not wrong. Can we stop reminiscing now? I'm really hungry."

"You read my mind. Lead the way."

Ella sat down at the Gryffindor table and poured herself a glass of orange juice. She smiled in greeting to Ebony whose mouth was too full of toast to properly reply. As she did so, Ella caught a glimpse of Sirius sitting across the opposite side of the table. He looked back at her with slightly knitted eyebrows, as if deep in thought or contemplating a difficult puzzle. To distract herself, Ella brought the glass of orange juice up to her mouth, and as she did so the events from the night before came flooding back to her. She had been sleeping. Sirius had woken her up with his self pitying flop onto the couch. They had talked. Worse than that, they had talked about feelings. Even worse than that; feelings had been felt. It suddenly occurred to Ella that much more than feelings had been felt the previous night and she lost her appetite completely. Her gaze fell upon Margot and she realised what the heavy feeling in the pit of her stomach was. She then chanced a glance back at Sirius who also seemed to have become aware of certain events. He looked back at Ella with wide eyes and she distinctly saw him mouth a certain explicative. Ella hadn't noticed that she had dropped her glass of orange juice and was surprised when she looked down that her school robes were now drenched in the liquid. While unfortunate, the spill gave her the perfect excuse to pardon herself from the table.

"Oh shit, guys I'm going to go upstairs and change, I got orange juice all over me," she said calmly. Spillages were rather common around Ella so nobody was surprised at the news.

"Ooh, I forgot my watch. El can you bring it back for me?" It was also not uncommon for Ella's friends to utilise her numerous wardrobe changes to their advantage. Ebony was particularly willing to use Ella as a personal gopher.

"Yeah sure. Anything else you need?"

"Nah that's all. Thanks darls." And with that, Ella briskly exited the great hall.

Sirius watched Ella leave the great hall with a sense of great urgency. Now would be the perfect time to go and talk to her, but he wasn't quite sure if this was the right timing. After all, she seemed to jump up quickly when she remembered what he had. Sirius must have been musing on the topic slightly too long, as James was eyeing him from across the table.

"The door that fascinating is it Pads?" Sirius quickly turned his gaze to his friend.

"Huh? Ah, nah, was just thinking."

"It wouldn't happen to do with last night would it?"

"What? Last night? What do you mean last night?"

"No need to be so defensive dog-man. You didn't get to bed til really late so that means either something terribly awful happened or something terribly great happened," James said with a smirk. Sirius ran his hands through his hair.

"You could say both. I think me and Miranda – oh fuck this, I'll tell you later mate, I have to sort something out."

And with that note, Sirius followed Ella's earlier path out of the great hall. Peter looked from Sirius' leaving frame to James' half bewildered, half satisfied expression.

"What's got into him?"

"I'm not entirely sure Wormtail, but I have a feeling he has finally left the dragon."

"You're shitting me! I was sure they would get married and have fire breathing puppies!" Remus had joined in the conversation.

"I wouldn't get our hopes up too much lads, I think he said he was going to sort it all out."

At this news, Remus' face fell. Sirius didn't know it but his friends found Miranda somewhat irritating; if not for the habit of stealing Sirius away all the time, for the fact that they had to hear about her all the time. Peter, however, looked more quizzical than perturbed by this information.

"But if he's going to sort it all out, where the hell is he going? Miranda is sitting over there," he said, pointing in the general direction of the Hufflepuff table. There was a pause.

"Maybe he's gone to write her a note?" James offered unhelpfully.

"Or maybe, he's gone to sort something else out." Remus' suggestion was much more favourable as it possibly meant that Sirius was in fact free of the dragon.

"Ill drink to that!" James proclaimed, and lifted his glass of juice as a toast. The others followed suit.

"Here, here!"

* * *

Sirius reached the third floor and had a crazy thought. What if Ella had returned to the scene of the crime? The first accidental crime, not the second rather more purposeful crime. Instead of continuing up the stairs to the common room, he quickly detoured to the end of the corridor. Not bothering to catch his breath, he opened the door he was so familiar with. The light was off but he could see a shadowy figure crouched in the far corner, shaking slightly and sniffing occasionally. He took a step forward, about to call Ella's name but instead lit his wand. The figure raised her head, her tear stained cheeks looking out of place on the face which now bore a perfectly shocked albeit delighted expression.

"It was you! I can't believe it was you! You came!"

Sirius stood stock still. He seemed to be in the wrong place.

"Ah sorry, my mistake, I thought you were someone else."

The girl rose from the floor and took a step toward Sirius. Instinctively, Sirius took a step back.

"Oh you don't have to pretend! It all makes so much sense now!"

"Ah, what makes sense?" Sirius wasn't even sure why he was still there. He didn't even know this girl.

"The letters! The chocolates and poems and gifts! It was you all along! You told me to meet you here so I came here, but then I thought you weren't coming which is why I was crying but here you are and I forgive you!" The girl took two more rather large steps toward Sirius so she was now standing right in front of him. He dropped his wand out of fright and the room was dark again. Not wanting to be in the dark with a clearly unbalanced person who believed he was her secret admirer, he quickly found the light switch and the room was bathed in golden yellow light.

"I'm sorry to disappoint you love, but I didn't send you any cards or poems or gifts. You must be thinking of someone else."

The girl tried to grab hold of Sirius' hand, to which he quickly busied himself trying to find his wand again.

"It's okay, you don't have to deny it any longer."

"Deny what? There's nothing to deny, I didn't do anything." Sirius was getting slightly desperate now. Where was his wand so he could get out of here?

"If you didn't write me those notes then why are you here, where you said you'd be?" She clearly thought he was teasing her. Sirius' hand finally gripped his wand. _Thank Merlin. _With this thought, he finally was able to launch himself at the door and re-enter the sunlit corridor.

"Sorry, but it really wasn't me who sent you those gifts. Good luck and all…ah, yeah." And with that note he left. Before the girl could yell out to him, Sirius spotted a rather scared looking boy with a bunch of flowers who seemed to have taken particular attention to his appearance this morning. He went up and rested a hand on the boy's shoulder.

"She's in there. Good luck with that one mate, you may need it."

The boy looked at Sirius in awe and nodded slightly. Sirius then tried to remember why he was down the corridor in the first place.

"Oh, fuck. Ella!" he said to himself and almost sprinted away. As he turned the corner he vaguely heard a girl's voice yell _"You? But I've known you since I was three, you're like a brother…"_

Even in his state of urgency, Sirius managed to feel sorry for the boy with the flowers.

Sirius finally made it to the common room, hoping beyond all hope that this was where Ella had gone. Calling her name throughout the common room, he received no reply. He eyed the spiral staircase which led to the girl's dormitory and sighed. Drastic times called for drastic measures. He quickly performed a sticking spell on his shoes and stood on the first step. Predictably, the stairs made a loud screeching sound and melded into a stone slide. Not to be deterred, Sirius began the hard task of climbing up the slide, the sticking charm working, well, like a charm. He read the sign on each door; _first years, second years, third years. _He stopped just outside the door which read _fourth years._ Hoping beyond all hope that Ella would be the only person, if any, in the dorm room, Sirius knocked. Without waiting for a reply, he opened the door anyway, only to be hit with a flying dressing gown. As he threw the gown aside, he noticed the whole room had been turned upside down. Draws were open and clothes scattered everywhere; school trunks opened and their contents spilled out onto the floor; quills and parchment scattered across every spare space. Ella looked up to stare blankly at Sirius for a moment, then quickly recommenced her frantic search.

"Are you okay?" Sirius asked, genuinely concerned. He wasn't sure what it meant when a girl trashed her dormitory.

"I'll be fine once I find this fucking watch," Ella said absently, emptying out someone's school rucksack.

"Watch?"

"Yeah, I came up here to change and Ebony asked me to bring her watch back down. I've looked everywhere but I can't find it." Ella didn't want to look at Sirius. She didn't want to talk to him, or hear him speak or hear him breathe. She wanted nothing more than to avoid him for the rest of time. She knew he wouldn't make it easy.

"What does it look like?" Ella looked at him in shock. She blinked.

"Um, a silver chain with oval watch face and a few rubies stuck right in there." Ella returned to her search almost half heartedly now. Why was he helping her?

Sirius glanced at the dresser which exhibited a few bottles of perfume, some make up, and a silver chain with an oval watch face with a few rubies 'stuck right in there'. He picked it up and dangled it for Ella to see.

"Is this it?"

Ella looked up yet again. She reluctantly walked toward him and grabbed the watch which was in his outstretched hand.

"Thanks," she mumbled. She hated that she seemed to be everything but composed. She looked everywhere but at Sirius, and realised what a mess she had made in her search.

"Ah, I'd better clean up this mess," she said and busied herself by tidying the nearest bed. Sirius, getting frustrated with her avoiding him, took matters into his own hands.

"Here, let me," he said, and with a wave of his wand, everything went zooming back to their rightful places. In no time the dormitory was spotless. Ella didn't bother to hide the fact that she was impressed.

"You're going make some girl very happy one day with those kinds of skills," she said and immediately regretted it. It was meant to be a passing comment but seemed rather inappropriate now, given the circumstances. She secured her grip on the watch and headed for the door.

"I'd better get this to Ebony."

As she passed Sirius, he lightly grabbed her arm. Ella stopped in her tracks and looked down at his hand.

"Please let go," she pleaded, her voice sounding shaky. She felt as if she was on the verge of tears now. Sirius dropped his hand immediately, but Ella didn't bolt as he had expected. Instead, she sat down on the nearest bed. Sirius followed suit and sat opposite her on another bed. He stared at her.

"I thought we said we'd forget about it," Ella finally piped up.

"I did. But then I remembered." Sirius replied.

"It's just that, I can't – My friends mean a lot to me and I can't betray one of them, however stupid it sounds, I just couldn't live with that guilt." Even as she said it, Ella thought her excuse was lame. As with everything she said and felt lately, she believed there was so much more that she couldn't explain. It kept coming down to loss.

"What, and you think I feel great about what happened? Me and Miranda never even said our relationship was over. I may have cheated on my girlfriend, the person I'm in love with and who I depend on, and you think I _want _to remember what happened last night?"

"Oh yeah, because you two are really suited for one another! Wasn't it just last night that you were saying that she didn't want to stick around, that she didn't _know_?"

"Wasn't it just two seconds ago that you were saying that _you_ wanted to forget what happened? Anyway, how the hell was last night a betrayal to your friends anyhow?"

"Don't worry, you wouldn't understand."

"Try me," Sirius challenged. He felt that deep down, he was enjoying invoking such strong emotion in Ella. She seemed so passive most of the time.

"Look, it's not even that! It's just wrong what happened okay? I'd been feeling so stupid, and sick and lost for ages and then out of the blue, and I _really _mean out of the blue, you come into the common room, get all deep and meaningful on me and its like you understand everything I'd been going through. It's really corny but when I was with you, I felt like I finally stopped missing out on everything and then I had a glimpse of reality and remembered that Margot's pretty much been in love with you since second year and I was sitting there snogging you! "

Ella clapped her hand over her mouth. She hadn't meant to say any of it but the words flowed out of her. Sirius didn't say anything. Everything Ella said had resonated with him more than his own words could have. He nodded his head slightly.

"I know what you mean. How about this time, when we say we'll forget, we mean it? I won't tell anyone if you won't. And I mean _anyone._ Then no one gets hurt."

_Except us._

"I promise," Ella said, and Sirius left the dorm room. Ella didn't even think to wonder how he had made it up to the girl's dormitory.

* * *

A week later, people were none the wiser about any goings on between Sirius and Ella. Ella remained good friends with Margot while Sirius remained on non-speaking terms with Miranda. He was still wondering whether they had broken up.

It was a Hogsmeade weekend. While the novelty had worn off somewhat as they had made many unlawful visits to the village, Sirius and his friends decided it would be good to get out of the castle and not have to sneak under an invisibility cloak half the time. After a butterbeer in the Three Broomsticks and having to listen to Lily and James' sickening smitten language (unbeknownst to Sirius, they were doing this only to get back at all the times he had done this with Miranda) Sirius decided a walk down the main street would do them good. The lovers were left at the pub to enjoy each other's company, while Peter and Remus took Sirius up on the offer of a stroll. They ended up standing outside the shrieking shack, which was always a surreal experience.

"It looks so much smaller from the outside, and not at all as scary," Peter offered.

"That surprises me actually, because normally on the inside is a fully grown werewolf, a huge black dog, a stag and a rat. You would think it looked smaller from the inside with all those animals in there," Remus added.

"Ah, but you're forgetting Moony, there be nothing but ghosts in that there house. You have quite an imagination on you sir, what an odd mix of animals you believe to be residing over yonder."

"Padfoot, it scares me how easily that sort of talk comes to you."

"Hey, you got it, flaunt it."

"I don't think talking like a 14th century pirate is a quality you should flaunt. I think it should be more of an internal skill that you keep to yourself."

"You're just jealous Moony because you don't have such lexical diversity as I."

"Hey guys, look, a new shop," Peter disrupted the other boys' petty argument and pointed towards a freshly painted shop at the end of the street.

"Huh, old Ma Biggins must have sold up then," Remus said, "come on, lets have a look."

The boys strolled over to the shop window which carried a stunning display of jewellery. Chunky gold necklaces, thin silver chains, pearl earrings and other fine pieces were set atop rich royal blue velvet.

"We should tell Prongs about this place, he was saying he wanted to get Lily something," said Peter.

Sirius, however, wasn't listening. He was distracted by a simple silver ring; a simple scratched pattern on the metal and a yellow gem set in the middle. He didn't know why, but he felt compelled to buy the item.

"Come on, let's go to Zonko's, see what new products they've got." Remus urged. Sirius continued to stare at the display window.

"You guys go on, I'll catch up."

At this, Remus and Peter exchanged glances. Both boys figured Sirius was staying behind to buy a present for Miranda, and not wanting to hear more about the girl, they quick footed it to the joke shop leaving Sirius behind.

Sirius entered the shop and enquired about the ring. After getting over his initial shock when he heard the price of the ring, _"Ten galleons?" _he still felt a pull toward the item. Cursing himself as he did so, Sirius delved into his pockets and managed to scrape ten galleons of which he was intending to buy some new quidditch equipment. As the shop assistant handed over the ring, Sirius shook his head.

"I must be fucking crazy."

* * *

Sirius definitely regretted buying the ring come the next quidditch practice. He could have used the luck of a new beater's bat. Although his team mates were practicing with every ounce of talent they possessed, his form still had not improved since their last game.

"SIRIUS, WILL YOU HURRY YOUR ARSE UP? NEARLY THREE PEOPLE HAVE BEEN KNOCKED OFF THEIR BROOMS SINCE WE STARTED!" James yelled.

"I SAID I WAS SORRY MATE!"

"YEAH WELL JUST DON'T LET IT HAPPEN AGAIN!"

Sirius was becoming increasingly frustrated with himself. Jemima came up to him and he dreaded what she was going to say. She was rather blunt when it came to him.

"Yeah, yeah, I know I should be scanning the pitch." Sirius said irritably.

"Yeah you should, but that's not what I was going to say. What's going on Sirius?"

"I'm playing like shit, that's what's going on."

"Yeah but why? Are you alright, I mean with everything else?"

Sirius thought about how he still hadn't spoken to Miranda about their relationship, then about what happened with Ella, and then about how James had been spending increasingly more time with Lily. This was all on top of the usual family issues as well. He was about to tell Jemima some of this but thought better of it.

"Everything's…fine. I just need to get it together."

Jemima looked at him sceptically, then patted him on the shoulder.

"You know you can talk to me whenever you want yeah?" she said earnestly.

"Are you coming on to me Jem?" Sirius said with a smirk. He was glad of the opportunity to make a joke.

"In your dreams Sirius," she retorted with a smile.

"Oh, if only you knew." Sirius winked after saying this which earned him a slap across the head.

"Well that would explain why you're playing so shit, you've been daydreaming about me. Don't worry, I know you just can't help it when we work so closely together." This time it was Jemima's turn to wink and with that note she flew away to rejoin the practice. As Sirius followed, he marvelled at how easily his friend could cheer him up, albeit in her own strange way.

Meanwhile, Lily was dragging her friends up the stands to watch the practice.

"Lily, why couldn't you have found some other people to drag along to watch Potter play his stupid aerial game?" Ebony whined as they ascended the stairs. She was the only one who wasn't very fond of quidditch.

"Because I saw you guys in the common room and figured you were all such wonderful, lovely people that I could manipulate you and make you come with me."

"That would be more funny if it wasn't so true," Ebony mumbled.

"Oh come on Eb, cheer up. You get to check out all the gorgeous Gryffindor players."

"I have a boyfriend Lily."

"Doesn't mean you can't still look."

Ebony stopped in her tracks, holding up Ella and Margot who were behind her.

"That's a good point," she said, then turned to the girls behind her, "come on, quick sticks, we want to get there before practice is over." Ella rolled her eyes at Ebony's turned back.

"And don't roll your eyes Esmeralda."

Ella was always surprised that Ebony could tell when she rolled her eyes, even when her back was turned. Additionally, Ella felt uneasy at her friend's statement as she had called her 'Esmeralda' which reminded her eerily of Sirius. It had just occurred to Ella that Sirius was on the quidditch team. Maybe this wasn't such a good idea after all.

* * *

After playing only marginally better for the rest of practice, Sirius was glad to see the ground. James' end of practice speech was somewhat positive except for an emphasis for everyone to stay focussed and play as a team. This was directed straight at Sirius which didn't make him feel much better about his poor performance. After James dismissed the team, Lily and company came over to the group. Margot immediately addressed James.

"James, I noticed you were using the Fletchman's technique. I think that would work a bit better if you had the beaters flying the wings while the chasers run up the middle, because that would leave them open to pass the ball freely while the beaters could keep a watch out for bludgers as well as defending the other team."

"Thanks Margot. Do you think we should involve the keeper in that play, or should we keep the goals manned?"

"I think keep them manned. You never know when an interception will be made."

"Okay, we'll try that next game. You know, I'm always surprised that you never tried out for the team."

"That would be because Margot here is afraid of being all the way up there," Ella pointed out. She had felt slightly uncomfortable being in the general vicinity of Sirius and decided to occupy herself with butting in to Margot's conversation. Also, she had noticed that Lily wanted to gain James' attention so she thought she should distract Margot from quidditch talk so Lily and James could have some time to themselves. As the team began to head to the change rooms, the girls decided they would go back to the castle to bludge around for the rest of their weekend. Lily, who decided she would hang around for James, called out to Ella.

"Hey, I wanted to talk to you about our charms assignment, did you want me to meet you up at the castle or?"

"Well we could discuss it now if you like, you're just waiting for James yeah?"

"Yeah."

"Okay then," Ella turned to Margot and Ebony, "you guys go on up, we'll catch up later."

"It's the weekend El, you shouldn't be doing homework, but if you insist, we'll see you later."

Lily and Ella discussed their assignment as the Gryffindor team slowly made their way out of the change rooms. Predictably, Lily and Ella had gotten sidetracked and were talking about the latest gossip rather than their school work. Finally, James made his way out of the change rooms.

"Where's Sirius?" Lily asked.

"Ah, yeah he may be a while." Lily narrowed her eyes at her boyfriend.

"What did you say to him?"

"What! I didn't say anything!"

You could see the shame creeping up on James' face as Lily continued to stare him down.

"Okay, I may have had a bit of a go at him for the way he was playing." At this comment, Lily swatted James across the arm.

"What did you do that for? You know he feels bad about that, and he's trying too! For the last part of the practice he was getting better. If he was just mucking around or something you could go ahead and yell your tits off at him, but he's got things he needs to sort out which is obviously affecting his game. God you can be insensitive sometimes James!" Lily said exasperatedly.

"You think I should go and talk to him?" James asked, hoping that it was what Lily was expecting him to say.

"No! Because he'll know I shamed you into it, and I can't go because I was the one who did the shaming! But I think someone should make sure he's okay."

Lily and James turned in unison to stare at Ella. Ella put her hands up.

"No, I don't think that would be a good idea. He's a big boy, I'm sure he's fine. Let's go back to the castle."

Ella tried to turn in the direction of the castle, only to be turned around again by James' quick hands.

"Please Ella, just go in and chat about something, otherwise he'll be moping for ages."

"What the hell am I going to talk about? Can't someone else do it?"

"Someone else _could_ but it's just so convenient that you're already here."

"I don't – I can't – I-"

But Lily and James had put on their best 'sad' faces and Ella caved.

"Okay, fine, but you owe me. Both of you!" James hugged her.

"Thanks Ella. We'll see you up at the castle?"

"What so you guys are just leaving me here with a mopey Black are you?"

"Pretty much."

"Oh, you two are so off my Christmas card list." Ella said grumpily and entered the change rooms. Luckily she was so annoyed at Lily and James that she had forgotten why she didn't want to talk to Sirius in the first place. That was until she saw him. He had already changed; his quidditch robes folded and lying next to him. The way Sirius was seated reminded Ella of how he had been when he'd had the fight with Miranda. She wasn't even sure if he had spoken to the girl since. Sirius looked up and was slightly taken aback to see Ella standing there.

"If you've come to see whether I've told anyone what happened, you don't have to worry. I haven't breathed a word."

"Oh, um no. I was asked to come and see if you were okay." Sirius gave her a quizzical look.

"Why you?" he asked suspiciously. Had she told someone what had happened?

"Just so you know, I haven't told anyone either, so you don't have to sound so accusatory. James sent me."

"You mean James was shamed into sending you by Lily?"

"Something like that, yeah."

There was an awkward silence. Ella was uncomfortable, while Sirius seemed too preoccupied moping to care that Ella was in the room.

"Why are you moping exactly? Is it because James yelled at you?" Ella asked almost forcefully. She wasn't sure why she was so annoyed seeing him like this.

"I can see they sent the right person, your sympathy is overwhelming. No it's not because James yelled at me! He yells quite a lot with quidditch, I'm sure I can handle it, thanks."

"Well then why are you being such a sourpuss?"

"I'm not being a sourpuss!"

"Yes you are, you're sulking, which I must say doesn't suit you in the slightest."

"Like you can talk! You don't really pull of the whole insensitive bitch thing yourself."

Sirius was standing up now, not really sure why he was so irritated.

"Yeah, well according to you, nothing suits me so I should just not talk to you."

"Where the hell did that come from? How often have I said that something doesn't suit you?"

Ella thought for a moment.

"I don't know, I just said it!"

"Well maybe you should think before you say things."

"Well maybe you should just say nothing at all, considering all you do is complain or insult someone!"

"You know for someone who's normally emotionally constipated, you sure do the whole anger thing quite well."

"Well it's hard not to be angry at an insufferable tit such as yourself and here's why – "

Ella didn't get to finish why she thought Sirius was an 'insufferable tit' as he had decided to stroll across the room and kiss her. It was the only thing he could do to shut her up and to stop himself from bursting out laughing. Sirius' head almost hurt from trying to figure out what their argument was about in the first place. Luckily, kissing Ella seemed to ease the pain slightly. That was until he was pushed off of her rather painfully into a bag hook.

"What are you _doing?_" Ella asked exasperatedly.

"I'm rubbing my back! You pushed me into the hook!" Ella rolled her eyes.

"I can see that, I meant why the hell did you kiss me?"

"It was the only thing I could think of to shut you up!"

Ella was insulted by this comment.

"What so you just go around kissing people who yell at you do you? No wonder James looked scared coming out of the change rooms before!"

There was only one thing to do. Sirius burst out laughing. Ella had said the last comment with such anger, it was hard not to.

"Stop laughing!"

Sirius laughed harder. Ella stalked over to him and swatted his arm.

"Shut up!" she said, but she was finding it hard to contain her own smile now. Before she knew it, she had sat down next to Sirius and was laughing just as hard as he was. They had nearly stopped until they caught each other's eyes and were in hysterics again. It took around five minutes for them to calm down, and finally, silence filled the room.

"Why do I feel like nothing makes sense with you?" Ella said, breaking the silence.

"Maybe because it doesn't. I seriously think there is something wrong with us. That coma messed us up majorly."

"You're not wrong."

Ella leant in to rest her head on Sirius' shoulder while his arm wrapped around her.

"You see, things like this! I don't even know you and yet I feel so comfortable around you. Well sometimes anyway. As you said, nothing makes sense."

Ella thought for a moment.

"Maybe we got to know each other when we were comatose."

Sirius laughed.

"You know, it wouldn't surprise me," he said and turned his head to peck Ella on the forehead. This gesture made her turn toward him and study his face.

"Did you sort things out with Miranda?" she asked, inwardly wishing that he would say yes, but at the same time wishing the answer was no.

"I haven't seen her."

"Oh."

There was another long silence.

"What if we just didn't tell anyone?" Sirius finally said. Ella looked at him in confusion.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, no one found out about last time, what if we just kept not telling people?"

"Generally that's what happens when you promise not to tell about what happened."

"No I don't mean that. I mean, what if there were – more times, that we didn't tell anyone about?"

"What, as in…" again Ella was cut off by Sirius kissing her again.

"That? Yes."

"But what about Margot, and Miranda?"

"They won't know, look."

Sirius kissed her longer and more passionately this time. His hand trailed up her neck and came to rest behind her ear.

"You see, it happened again, and did they find out?"

At that moment, they heard the door of the room open. Sirius peeked around the corner and noticed Miranda with one of her friends standing in the doorway. Sirius quickly grabbed Ella's hand and lead her to the nearest shower cubicle. He closed the door and put his finger to her lips to quieten her. They heard Miranda's voice.

"Sirius?"

Ella's eyes opened wide, while Sirius' eyes looked pleadingly at her to stay quiet. He could just see her brain ticking over as her gaze lost his. She was having second thoughts now, as Miranda had finally come to talk to him about their relationship. What if they sorted everything else and she ended up becoming the 'other woman'? What if Margot found out what was going on and never spoke to Ella again? Sirius knew he'd have to convince her that he didn't want to go back to Miranda, that he wanted to see where she could take him instead. He leant down to whisper in Ella's ear.

"Esmeralda, I want to know what its like to be with you, I want to make sense of this. I don't want what I had with Miranda any more."

Ella stared at him for what felt like a lifetime. Sirius was worried his eyes would well up and she would see. Again, it was yet another thing that he couldn't explain. It was almost desperation for her to agree with him. He couldn't stand it if she rejected his offer, if she didn't believe he was being sincere.

"Sirius, I know you must be here somewhere, you're robes are still here!" came Miranda's voice which Sirius inwardly cursed at. Couldn't she shut up for two seconds so Ella wasn't reminded of her presence? Instead of looking away as he expected, Ella smiled and rolled her eyes. It was contagious; Sirius smiled too. Ella then grabbed Sirius' collar and leant his face down so she could kiss him. It was a rather difficult task as both of them were trying not to giggle and make much noise. Finally, Sirius was able to calm down and kiss her properly; the now familiar swooping sensation taking over his body. He almost moaned as the kiss heated up and Ella's hand made its way underneath his shirt, but he caught himself in time and instead, leaned even more into her.

They had no idea if Miranda was still in the room or not, but considering it was around fifteen minutes later, they took the risk and exited their shower cubicle.

"So does that mean we officially have a sneaky relationship then?" Sirius asked playfully as he walked with Ella back to the castle.

"I think relationship would be a bit of a stretch. I'd say its more a sneaky 'thing' we have going on."

"Okay, sneaky 'thing' it is then!"

* * *

True to their word, Sirius and Ella didn't tell anyone about their sneaky 'thing'. This meant both had come particularly adept at sneaking out of the common room late at night to talk and be together. It also meant concocting ridiculous reasons why they had to sit next to each other in class, which usually resulted with Sirius having to do some quick thinking as to why he jumped out of his seat, because he couldn't possibly tell the teacher that it was because Ella's hand was slowly creeping further and further up his leg. Despite how sly they were being, Remus and Peter weren't fooled. As James had been too preoccupied with Lily, he hadn't noticed anything out of the ordinary, but as Remus and Peter constantly found themselves alone, they began to suspect something was up with Sirius. Originally their suspicion was that Sirius had gotten back together with Miranda, however this scenario was squashed rather gratefully one night when Remus decided he wanted to go to the kitchens for a midnight snack. Instead of being greeted by an empty common room, he saw Sirius propped up against the couch with Ella lying between his outstretched legs, her head resting on his shoulder as they were talking and laughing. Remus had never been so glad that his friend had found someone he was infatuated with, as Sirius seemed to have finally resisted the urge to show it off through disgusting displays of public affection and constantly talking of the girl. Instead of feeling insulted that Sirius never told any of them, Remus delighted in hearing what excuse Sirius would come up with to get some alone time with Ella.

* * *

It wasn't until May that there would be trouble. Ella had agreed to meet Sirius in the common room at one in the morning. Although Ella didn't know this, Sirius chose this time as it was the very time he had come into the common room after his fight with Miranda. The same night of the first deliberate 'incident'. The previous day Sirius had been going through his trunk and found the ring he had bought almost a month ago. It finally occurred to him what he had bought it for, or rather, whom he had bought it for. Like everything about Ella, buying the ring for her over a month ago made no sense, but he knew she was the one he wanted to give it to. At one stage he had considered wearing it himself, but thought the ring may have been too feminine even for him.

"Good evening spunky!" Ella greeted Sirius as she hopped off the last step of the girl's dormitories.

"Spunky ey? Not sexy, or gorgeous or my manly boyfriend?" Sirius teased as he kissed her in greeting.

"Be thankful you got a spunky, I could have called you ugly!"

"Yeah but we'd both know you were lying."

"Oh, your modesty is overwhelming."

"Well you better sit down then," said Sirius as he lead her over to the couch where they curled up together.

They talked for almost an hour before Sirius remembered he had a present for her.

"I have a present for you, did you know?" he said, sounding like an excited boy. Ella smiled at him.

"It's not another kiss is it? Because I can get those whenever I like, so it's not like a proper present."

Sirius pouted, "I resent you saying that! And no, it is an actual present."

Sirius pulled a small box from underneath the couch and handed it to Ella.

"I bought this a while ago. I saw it and knew I had to get it for you."

He may have been stretching the truth a little, but it sounded much more romantic than 'I bought this ages ago for no apparent reason and realised you were the perfect person to give it to.'

As Ella opened up the box, she gasped as she saw the topaz embedded ring.

"Oh, Sirius I love it! Thank you! Hang on, it's not like our anniversary or anything is it? Because I'm really sorry but I forgot and I haven't got you anything!"

Ella's panicking made Sirius laugh.

"No it's not our anniversary, I just wanted to give you this that's all."

Ella took the ring out of the box and began trying it on different fingers.

"Well thank you so much, it's beautiful!"

The ring didn't fit on any of her fingers on her left hand, and she now began placing it over fingers on her right hand. As she placed it on her right ring finger she felt a strange sensation. It was almost as if pins and needles were climbing up her arm. She ignored this and continued to talk to Sirius as she twirled the ring on her finger, admiring it from every angle. Although she continued to talk, she became rather dizzy and hot. Suddenly, a memory flashed into her head of her showing the ring to Remus…

"_Oh well in that case, did you want to see the ring Sirius got me?"._

"_You bought her a ring?"_

"_Yeah you see the thing is, we were pretending to be engaged and you can't pretend to be engaged without a ring, so I went and got that ring – "_

The room had swum away from Ella at this point and other memories were coming to her; Entering the Ministry of Magic; Shopping in London's West End; Sitting at a table with a much older looking Remus as well as a family of red heads who she knew to be the Weasleys; fighting with Sirius and him saying that it wouldn't be worth going back if he couldn't know her anymore; dancing to The Sound of Music and drinking; reading newspaper articles about Sirius being imprisoned; counting; counting; counting. But why had she remembered counting so much? Then she remembered more; they were dead, Lily and James and Sirius and so was she. At this memory Ella had one last dizzy turn and passed out.

* * *

"She'll be okay Padfoot, I promise. She must have just feinted again, it'll be okay." Came Remus' voice.

"You don't know that Moony! You didn't see how she was before she passed out! She was muttering all this nonsense and her eyes were rolling in the back of her head! It was scary!"

Ella expected to open her eyes and be in the lounge room of Grimmauld Place, Sirius and Remus looking down upon her. When she opened her eyes however, she realised she was in the hospital wing of Hogwarts. One look at Sirius was enough to make her heart leap. His eyes were puffy, his hair messed up and tear stains had dried on his cheeks. He had never looked so gorgeous to Ella and yet she wanted to get as far away from him as possible. She remembered. She remembered everything. Their friends would die, Sirius' godson forced to live a life with no parents, and eventually Sirius too would leave him. And Ella, she too would die. Peter, he would betray them all. Ella started to panic. She wanted to shout to the world everything she knew of the future. Warn Lily and James that their friend would bring about their death, warn Sirius that he would end up an innocent in Azkaban, reassure Remus that Sirius could never have done what he thought was possible. Madame Pomfrey came rushing over as she noticed what Sirius and Remus hadn't, Ella was awake.

"You two, back to your common room, you are upsetting my patient," she said sternly. Sirius however didn't take any notice, as he simply threw himself on Ella, so glad that she was awake again. Ella couldn't hold back any longer, she began to cry. Sirius would lose everything, and in turn, she may have to lose him. Madame Pomfrey finally prised Sirius off Ella and successfully kicked him out of the hospital wing.

"You have a loyal one there my dear. You've been through a lot, but I still can't see what's causing you to black out like this. Here, drink this potion, it should stop the dizziness."

Wordlessly, Ella accepted the potion and lay back down. Madame Pomfrey excused herself and informed Ella that she would be back to check on her in the morning.

Ella didn't sleep. She was going through everything she had remembered, and with each memory it was as though she finally understood what she had been feeling for so long now. Loss. The loss fitted so perfectly with her feelings. The loss of life, the loss of what could be. The loss of what would be. After much analysis, Ella finally realised the loss of what would be was the biggest of them all. A sense of calm washed over Ella. She no longer felt the need to scream her findings from the rooftops. Far from it. She instinctively knew that she could never tell anyone of her memories, for everything had already happened. She knew this, as she was aware of how her life must be lived. Wasn't she told that she disappeared from the wizarding community the day after graduating Hogwart's School of Witchcraft and Wizardry? It was clear to her now that she must distance herself from the world she now knew too much about. On her last day of school, she must disappear. Maybe she would become Esmerelda Powell the muggle, rather than Ella Powell, the witch. As her possible options were becoming evident, Ella began to cry harder than she had ever cried. She would have to leave everything she loved, the only life she'd known.

Despite the grief she was feeling, there was one piece of information that still irked Ella. It was as if some vital piece of information was missing. She went through everything she remembered, and realised that there were no more memories after the moment she went through the veil in the Department of Mysteries. She figured this was the moment she had awoken in this time, however she still felt there was something important she had forgotten. She decided to dwell on this later. She had enough to be dealing with for now. Oh how sad, there is only one chapter left! Sorry it took so long to get this chapter up, although it is over 8000 words long so hopefully the length makes up for the delay!! I really hope this chapter flows alright…there was a lot I wanted to cover but essentially, the end of this chapter was the most important so as long as you understood that, I'm happy lol.

* * *

A/N:

Okay…last chapter the led zeppelin reference was _Dazed and Confused…_

I am feeling generous as it is easter, so everyone who reviews gets bonus points lol

Thank you SO MUCH for EVERYONE who has reviewed and stuck with my story…I hope the next chapter will not disappoint, because it is the final one and reveals absolutely everything that I have been working up to!!

Please Please Please review, I would love to know what you think before the story ends!

THANK YOU'S ALL ROUND!!


	18. Beginning of the End

* * *

**Disclaimer: **Don't own Harry Potter, don't know who does!! well, i know who does, i just don't know her...she may as well be fictional too...ah, yeah...

IT HAS BEEN A LONG TIME, SO I SHALL GET TO POSTING THE CHAPTER WITHOUT MUCH FURTHER ADO!! ENJOY!!

* * *

**Chapter Eighteen – Beginning of the End **

There was only so much crying a person who didn't usually cry could do, and Ella was sure she had reached her quotient for her entire lifetime. Gone were the days of vanity when she would avoid crying as the resultant red face and puffiness were too much for her startled reflection to handle. Gone were the days when counting was the only effective remedy to cure ails. Gone were the days of blissful ignorance. Ella had reduced herself to a state which, under different circumstances, she would have been disgusted by. She had broken. She had crumbled into as many pieces as the urn which had ultimately caused her character to change beyond recognition. Of all the terrible things she remembered; death; war; destruction; the thing which struck her most severely was the constant feeling of loss and now knowing what that loss entailed. Despite Ella's knowledge of the future, it was the fear of what was to come, the loss that she knew would come, which scared her most. While she was certainly grieving for her friends' future, Ella couldn't help but grieve for her own future the most. In doing so, she felt selfish, but she felt she had been given a second chance at her life, only to have it snatched away. She couldn't believe how her biggest worry at a time like this was a boy. A silly boy who had told her in two different lifetimes, that he wanted to see what a life with her would be like.

"_If I said I loved you I'd be lying, but believe me when I say that I want nothing more than to go back and remember you. It just sucks that we'll never get to know what could have happened and I know I sound as corny as hell right now so you better not tell anyone what I'm saying, but I really think that if I had gotten to know you even more, I could have fell for you completely__'_

'_I want to know what it's like to be with you, I don't want what I had with Miranda anymore'. _

She was very mindful that Sirius had never used the word 'love' in relation to how he felt about her. Sure he had said he _could _fall in love with her, but there was always an uncertainty about their future together. Ella knew that if 'love' ever entered the picture, it would be over. Yet, being the foolish girl she was, that was the the one thing she wanted to experience before her life was torn apart once again. Ella had come to the conclusion that the words love and selfish were synonymous with each other.

* * *

Almost to Ella's delight, there wasn't long to go of seventh year. She had found the last month far too stressful finding excuses to dodge Sirius and her friends. Studying for exams which had no purpose for how her life was now planned seemed the perfect solution; they were the only thing which kept her sane. Instead of torturing herself by thinking up possible ways to say goodbye to her friends, she was able to immerse herself in information of 17th Century wizarding wars and seemingly endless Latin spells. However, try as she might, Ella couldn't bring herself to study for Ancient Runes. She was sure one 'T' in her N.E.W.T's would be acceptable, given she may never cast another spell once she stepped outside Hogwarts. Not only did exams allow an easy escape from reality; they also provided the perfect excuse to avoid Sirius. Luckily, Sirius obliged as he too was busy studying. Although he was a bright boy, there was only so much information one could acquire without picking up a textbook. Ella wanted nothing more than to spend as much time as she possibly could with Sirius, but she knew that if she did this, it would be even harder to say goodbye. She wasn't even sure if she _would_ say goodbye.

Despite all her efforts, Sirius never noticed that Ella was trying to avoid him as all seventh years were rather busy at this time. This meant that he still believed their 'sneaky thing' to be ongoing and sought Ella out when he finally had some spare time. He found her one night sitting against the armchair in the common room. Her books were strewn about the floor but clearly were not being read as Ella's head had lolled to one side and she was clearly asleep. Sirius spent a good five minutes admiring her before he got bored. He gently swept back her hair from her face in the hope of her waking. No reaction. He nuzzled her neck and called her name. No reaction. Sirius, being paranoid given the number of times Ella had feinted in recent times, panicked slightly and checked her pulse. There was a clear heartbeat under his fingers and he let out the breath he had been holding. Seeing as though his more subtle attempts proved ineffective, Sirius stood up from the floor and deliberately kicked the chair Ella was lying against. She woke up immediately, her puffy eyes quickly scanning the room. Sirius' voice came from above her.

"DAMMIT! Clumsy me, I ran into the chair! Sorry, were you asleep?" Sirius said with a surprisingly straight face. Ella looked blurrily up at him.

"Ah, no I was studying," Ella lied and shuffled some nearby papers to make it look as though she had been doing something. Meanwhile, Sirius now sported a secret smirk, not wanting to give away the fact he had been watching her sleep for ages. He would let her lie if that's what she wanted.

"Well how about you take a break from studying and we catch up. It's been ages since we had a good chat."

Ella thought about all the reasons she had been avoiding Sirius.

"Ah, I think I better keep studying. Final exams only come around once and all that." Sirius was slightly downhearted, but never one to be deterred, he had the perfect retort.

"True, true. Tell me, do you get more studying done with your eyes shut? Because when I walked in here you seemed asleep but clearly you were just using your own method of studying. Visualising a spell were you?"

Ella eyed Sirius suspiciously and realised she had been caught out. Ironic that she had come down to study in the common room to avoid her friends and ended up running into the person she was most trying to avoid. She found herself getting irritated.

"What, so you came down here to watch me sleep and deliberately wake me up?"

"Ah, so you were sleeping?" Ella looked defeated but retorted nonetheless.

"No I was – " Sirius bent down and placed a kiss on her forehead, "sleeping?" He finished for her.

Ella looked up at him pityingly. Now that she had made contact with him for the first time in ages, she knew she couldn't run away from him. Sirius sat down in the armchair and motioned for Ella to sit on his lap. Ella took a forlorn glace toward her numerous books but Sirius managed to lift her into the chair with him. Sirius rested his head in the crook of her neck and let out a sigh.

"This is nice. I've missed this," Sirius said. Ella turned so her head was level with his. She noticed he now had at least four day's worth of stubble on his chin and unconsciously ran her hand down his face.

"Me too," she eventually replied. Her voice sounded weak. She felt Sirius' cheek lift as he smiled at her. He let out a chuckle.

"You look like crap," he offered.

"Well, I feel like shit," Ella replied. It was almost nice to admit how horrible she was feeling, even if Sirius didn't understand the reason behind it. She did however, make a mental note that he had insulted her.

"Hey, I didn't say you looked like shit, just crap," Sirius continued.

"There's a difference?"

"Of course there is. Crap is one level above shit. If I said you looked like shit it would be far more insulting."

"Well its insulting either way you know,"

"Well maybe I should have said that you look like you feel like crap, because that is what I meant. Even when you look like you feel like crap, you still look adorable." Ella was having a hard time following him, but figured he was trying to pay her a compliment.

"Ah, thanks?"

"You're welcome," Sirius said and kissed her temple. Ella decided to ignore the rush of sadness that flowed through her and instead snuggled further into Sirius' frame. They stayed quiet for some time and Ella was almost feeling content. That was until Sirius opened his mouth again.

"What are you planning to do when we leave Hogwarts anyway?" Ella tensed.

"What do you mean?" she asked warily.

"Well we've been together for a while now and I still don't know what job you're going for when we leave here."

_Is muggle an occupation? _Thought Ella.

"I haven't really decided," she answered shortly.

"You mean to tell me that you're studying your arse off and you don't even know what you want to do?"

"Pretty much. I'll see what comes up." Ella was expecting more questions, but surprisingly, Sirius dropped the topic.

"Fair enough. So if you don't know where you'll be working, you don't know if you'll be staying with your mum and dad or moving away from home?" Despite how casually Sirius said this, Ella felt his heartbeat quicken as the words left his mouth. She decided to be nonchalant.

"I suppose. If I find a job in England I suppose I'll have to move away from home. Unless I find a job in the mines or something." Ella was trying to lighten the mood, more for her own benefit than for Sirius' but it seemed to work.

"Yes I do hear those Welsh mines are after some good looking young girls to cart coal and get all dirty like."

This comment earned a swat from Ella, but Sirius continued.

"Well if you do find a job in jolly old England, you're welcome to stay at my place. I don't know if I told you this but I have a place in Shoreditch so if you worked in London area and you needed to be close by then you can stay with me." Ella realised that Sirius said this very quickly, as if he was dreading an answer. It just so happened that Ella was dreading answering him. In a perfect world she would jump up and down and kiss him and scream whether he was asking her to move in with him. But this was far from a perfect world – people didn't even know they were together, let alone all the other information Ella was burdened with. Despite the world's imperfections, Ella couldn't help but smile at him.

"I'd like that," she replied. She wasn't exactly lying. She knew she wouldn't be able to live with him, given the circumstances but it was definitely something she would _like _to do_. _The answer seemed good enough for Sirius as he hugged her tighter and then seemed to relax a lot more. Sirius leaned his head on Ella's shoulder once more and closed his eyes.

"Tell me something I don't know," Sirius asked after a while. Millions of things rushed through Ella's head. What would he like to know that he didn't already? Maybe that he would go to Azkaban? That his cousin would kill him? That his best friend and his future wife would also be murdered and leave behind a beautiful baby boy? That, despite what she wanted, she couldn't be with him?

"I don't think there _is_ anything you don't know." Ella replied, again going with the safest option. Sirius opened one eye to observe her and smiled.

"I've trained you well haven't I?" he said, once again closing his eye. For some reason, Ella felt her eyes become hot as she looked at him.

"You sure did," she answered quietly. As Sirius' breathing began to slow, Ella decided it might be best if they went to their respective dormitories.

"I think it's time for bed," she whispered. Sirius groaned.

"Come on, I'm really comfy and we are yet to spend much quality time together," he mumbled.

"Well it's hard to spend quality time with you when you are sleeping." Ella was on the verge of tears now. Luckily, Sirius was too busy nodding off to notice her sad tones.

"I'm not sleeping, I'm resting my eyes."

Ella couldn't even bring herself to reply to this as a tear slid down her cheek. She took this moment to take in absolutely everything about Sirius. The smell of his hair; the warmth of his arms around her; his slow heart beat; the coarseness of his stubble on her shoulder. She would file away these sensations for years to come and every now and then, torture herself with remembering every detail of Sirius Black.

* * *

As with all dreaded events, Ella's final day at Hogwarts came around too quickly. Her last exam was two days ago and she surprised herself by celebrating with her friends the following day. That meant she had enjoyed one whole day over the course of four weeks. Although Ella's mathematical abilities seemed limited to counting inanimate objects, even she knew that one out of twenty eight days wasn't a high percentage. She didn't class the few days she had spent with Sirius as particularly enjoyable as those times seemed a constant reminder of what was to come. It seemed far too ironic that on the breakfast table that morning was pancakes and trifle.

"What do they think they're playing at, serving desserts for breakfast on our last day?" Ebony scowled. She liked to eat slightly healthier than the morning's options.

"Gee, I don't know Eb, maybe the house elves just wanted us to have something special for our last day? Lighten up." The irony continued; it wasn't often that Margot was telling Ebony to lighten up. Ebony looked dumbfounded at her friend's comment.

"House Elves! That makes perfect sense!" Ebony yelled, while unconsciously piling her plate with the offending food. It was Margot's turn to look dumbfounded.

"Ebony, please tell me you didn't just realise after seven years that all your meals didn't make themselves?"

Without so much as an embarrassed tint to her cheeks, Ebony replied.

"Actually, yeah, I did just figure it out. You got a problem with that?"

"Not exactly, but I'm sure our teachers would be horrified that after seven years of education, they failed to get you to understand the laws binding magic."

"There are laws?" Ebony replied, trying to be smug but failing due to the raspberry jelly now filling her mouth. The jelly was the closest thing to fruit she could find on the table. Ella watched her friends fondly. It was weird knowing she would have to leave them; she never did find out about Ebony and Margot's future. Just when she was beginning to see a loophole in her plan, Ella was distracted by a group of boys now occupying the seats next to her. They chatted loudly and ate as much as their plates could hold. Ella caught Sirius' eye at one stage as he was eating from a large stack of pancakes. He smiled. Then he winked. Ella blushed slightly and then turned away, preferring to listen once again to her friend's conversation. Ella couldn't bring herself to have any of the pancakes, but she did eat her own weight in trifle. Not bad for a girl who thought she wasn't hungry.

* * *

As the seventh years waited for the horseless carriages to take them to Hogsmeade Station, Ella felt a tug on her arm. She turned around and saw a beaming Sirius looking down on her.

"Excuse me fellow classmate, could I have a word about an assignment we did together in a class we both took?"

Ella found herself laughing at his deliberate lame attempt to talk to her. She wanted to run away. Instead, she nodded and allowed Sirius to drag her away from the crowd of students. They stopped as soon as they could no longer hear the buzz of the other students. Without saying a word, Sirius lifted Ella up and twirled her around. Ella was reminded of the night they danced in Grimmauld Place, minus the bump to the head. As soon as Ella's feet were on the ground, Sirius kissed her. He drew away from her with the biggest smile on his face. Mesmerised, Ella couldn't look away from him. She was having second thoughts. Maybe she remembered what happened for a reason. Maybe she was meant to change the future after all. Her determination to change everything she remembered solidified as Sirius kissed her again. His kisses were quick; as if he didn't need to put into every kiss what he felt because he would have plenty of time to do that on other occasions. Ella's skin was on fire where her body contacted his. Sirius pulled away again.

"Our last day, can you believe it?" Ella couldn't reply so she forced a smile and nodded enthusiastically. If it was possible, Sirius' grin became even wider. As he had done so many times before, he leant in to talk in Ella's ear. This gesture always made Ella feel like he was telling her something that no one else would ever know.

"We're fucking free! We're adults and we won't have to worry about school or what people say or how we act or anything! And I can't wait to tell people about us, because I've mused upon it for a while and I think I've figured out that I love you, and I may have done for a little while now and I just want to be able to tell people and get you to meet my family…James' family that is, not mine coz mine are complete fuck heads and…yeah…" Sirius noticed that Ella hadn't said anything.

"Oh fuck, I've scared you! Sorry, um I take that back, I don't want you to meet my family and you wont have to – "

"Sirius - " Ella interrupted, " – I think I…,you know, for you too."

Ella couldn't bring herself to say that she loved him, even though she knew it to be true. It didn't matter though, Sirius got the meaning and that was good enough for him. He continued to hug her, unaware of her forlorn look.

He had said it. It was over. Any hope of Ella changing the future faded into the background as that dreaded word reverberated in her head. Over and over it went until it didn't seem to make sense anymore. If he hadn't said it, they could have had longer. It was the last experience she was holding on to and now it had happened so she had to move on.

Unbeknownst to the couple, another sneaky student had deserted the busy crowd to take some last minute pictures of Hogwarts. The student had intended to take photos of the castle, the lake and perhaps a sly shot of the Whomping Willow but was distracted by a tall figure in one of the frames. The student looked through the viewfinder of his camera and found that very familiar figure to be Sirius Black, talking to another familiar figure, Ella Powell. Remus figured he couldn't pass up the opportunity to blackmail his friend with photographic evidence of a 'secret' romance. The button made a clicking sound as the photo was snapped.

* * *

Ella didn't make it to the Hogwart's Express that afternoon. Sirius' words saw to that. He had returned to the crowd of waiting students while she said she would meet up with him on the train. Her excuse was that she had forgotten something in her dormitory. She hadn't forgotten anything. For once. Ella sat on her suitcase far from everyone, waiting for the crowd to slowly disappear. The students piled onto the horseless carriages one by one. She looked away when she saw Margot and Ebony climb into their own carriage, looking around to see where their friend had got to. She never even saw Sirius leave.

Finally, only two teachers remained and started meandering back to the castle entrance. Ella jumped as she heard the castle door slam shut. She looked down at her hands and realised she was holding her Hogwarts Graduation Certificate. Kingsley's words resonated within her.

"_No records of you even existing after 1977. There was the record of you graduating from Hogwarts but then, nothing."_

Ella knew it was time.

* * *

Esmeralda Powell disappeared from the wizarding world on 14th June, 1977. On the 15th June, 1977, the name Esmeralda Powell appeared among many other registered civilians on a computer screen in the General Register Office. The computer did not take notice of the new addition. The government employees did not notice the extra name either; after all, their computer system was only second to that of NASA. How could a new name enter the system without having been there the whole time? Magic?

* * *

Ella had left the wizarding world to distance herself from all that she knew. She never got to witness the disappointment on Sirius' face when the train pulled into Platform 9 ¾, nor his stony silence a week later when he realised either something terrible must have happened to his girlfriend or that he had been ditched. Ella would never know of the photo Remus took on their last day of school, nor the reason why Sirius carried that photo in his pocket every time he went on a mission for the Order of the Phoenix. Even Sirius didn't know why he did this. Ella's parents would never tell her that Margot and Ebony had spent much of their time and effort looking for their lost friend after school had finished. Ella's dad certainly didn't tell her that he had confunded her friends into believing that Ella was working abroad as he couldn't bare to lie to them any longer. Ella would never know if she ended up making the right decision. She believed that the right option was not always the easiest. Considering how difficult she found her circumstances, she wanted to believe she _had_ made the right decision.

The only people from Ella's former world who knew where she had gone were her family, and even they were not privy to the excuse for her actions. In the time between the 14th and 15th of June, Ella had gone home. She explained enough for her family to understand that she needed to leave and they helped her make her debut into the muggle world. For the rest of her life they would be her only remaining contacts in the wizarding world. She would make sure to visit them at least three times a year. She could eventually get used to leaving her friends behind but she still needed her family. After all, she couldn't spend the rest of her life completely miserable.

* * *

For fear of forgetting something important, Ella started writing down everything she knew about the future. It was an ongoing list as little things would pop into her head when she least expected them to. Like the time she was teaching herself to drive in the country and the memory of Sirius kissing Hermione at Christmas time flashed into her head. As a result, she crashed into a farmer's fence and a herd of sheep escaped. She fixed the fence with her wand and _accio_ed the sheep back into the paddock. After that incident, Ella figured she should pay for driving lessons – and probably not use her wand as much if she was trying to be a muggle. In fact, once Ella looked over her list she realised right near the top was the fact that she had her wand when she time travelled, meaning that her wand must have been destroyed when she became a muggle. Although she felt this fact to be of huge importance, Ella couldn't destroy her wand. She felt she would know when it was time to stop using magic, and her instincts were telling her that the time had not come yet.

Ella, ever the fan of self inflicted emotional torture, took out a subscription to the Daily Prophet under a false name and had the paper delivered to her flat in Camden. This way, she was not a part of her former world but was still informed (albeit in a rather biased manner) on happenings in the magical world. Her favourite section of the paper was the personal columns. Each day she would scour the paper for any information on her friends. Ella tried not to think of the horrible day she would read the headlines informing her of Lily and James' death and the following articles about Sirius' supposed crime. On 31st July, 1980, Ella turned to the personal columns only to be greeted by a photo of Harry Potter; son of James and Lily Potter. Despite the shock of seeing a picture of the boy she had known only as a teenager, Ella could not help but feel her spirits lift for the first time in a long time. She was so happy, in fact, that she took the day off work and spent the day shopping for a party she would throw in celebration over the weekend. Her friends didn't have to know what the party was for. Nothing that day could bring her down; not the thought that Lily and James would only live another year longer, not the constant reports of an uprising evil in the wizarding world and not even the thought of what she had lost because all she could think of right now was that the world had now gained three remarkable people which were of course Hermione, Ron and Harry. Ella would celebrate again a year later when Ginny Weasley's birth would be announced. Not only could thoughts not bring Ella down that day, the strange happenings of her day didn't even make her think twice about her good mood. A handful of bags indicated that Ella had almost completed her shopping in the Camden Market. Ella was standing in front of the last stall she intended to go to when the merchant turned around and dropped the watermelon Ella had selected. For a moment, Ella was scared that the merchant had recognised her, but upon hearing a low growling coming from behind her, she quickly realised the man had been frightened by a large black dog. Ella wasn't so much scared as curious, for it seemed the dog was growling at _her. _She figured she must have put on too much perfume for the dog's liking. Ella had always known not to look an angry dog directly in the eye, but it seemed this dog was trying to do exactly that. As Ella risked a glance at the canine, she saw an unexpected sadness in its eyes – that was until the dog charged and nipped her on the leg which made her shopping bags fall to the ground. Ella too fell to the ground as the dog charged past her. From her new vantage point, she saw the dog look back at his handiwork. She could have sworn she saw that dog smirk.

The day Ella held her party in honour of another of her friends being brought into the world, Sirius stopped carrying the photo of he and Ella around. He still couldn't bring himself to rip it up so laid it at the back of his photo album where he was least likely to find it again.

* * *

Ella had found it harder to cry over the years. She still let the occasional tear slip when she saw a sad movie or each time she would hug her family goodbye, but she felt she had dried up somewhat after her induction as a muggle. Four years had past without Ella stepping even a toe back into the wizarding world. She thought that she would be excited the first time she saw someone unmistakably from her former world. She was wrong. The first time the muggle Ella saw evidence of witches and wizards was November 1st, 1981 and she felt far from excited; instead, she felt unnerved. She arrived home from her morning walk after witnessing groups of strangely dressed individuals and several loads of fireworks that looked suspiciously like wand sparks. Ella payed the owl delivering her Daily Prophet but was too scared to unroll the paper. After staring at the offending paper for more than half an hour, Ella got up the courage to read the headline. HARRY POTTER: CONQUEROR OF YOU-KNOW-WHO. Ella was confused; _Harry _the conqueror of this unnamed beast she had been reading about for years? She had never been informed of this. For the first time she realised that she and Sirius may not have been let in to as much as they initially thought. Intrigued to find out more, Ella scanned the article: _tragic circumstances…Godric's Hollow…orphaned…killing curse…demise of You-Know-Who…wizarding history…scar…_

Ella couldn't bear to read the last paragraph of that article for it bore the details of Lily and James' funeral. What Ella had dreaded for so long had now begun, and instead of every piece falling into place, she felt there were just more complicated questions.

Ella figured out she had 107 muggle objects in her flat.

* * *

As expected, not long after the death of Lily and James, Ella again read a regretted headline, although this time she knew exactly what to expect. The heading _Black day for13 Muggles: Darker Day for Black_ was all too familiar to Ella as she had read it all those years ago in a bedroom of Grimmauld Place. Ella read the condemning article for the second time in her life, feeling no less infuriated by the injustice of the matter. Ella stared out the window, twirling her wand between her fingers. A spark of light interrupted her thoughts and she realised her ring had caught the sunlight. It seemed cruel that there was sun on a day like today. Ella stopped twirling her wand and studied it long and hard. It had one last job to do.

* * *

Ella performed a location spell using a map of London to find where Sirius had been living. As she had expected, her wand pointed toward the suburb of Shoreditch – exactly where Sirius had told her he had bought a place on one of their final nights together. Figuring she should take advantage of using magic while she still could, Ella attempted apparating directly into Sirius' living room. Upon hearing no 'pop' Ella opened her eyes and realised she was still in her own living room. She had been driving places far too long. Trying not to think what would happen if she splinched herself, she tried again, thinking as hard as she could on Sirius and his own flat. Eventually, she felt as though she was being squeezed very tightly through a tube and heard the ever familiar 'pop' signalling that she had apparated successfully. But had she made it to the right place?

Scared to open her eyes in case she had appeared in a busy London street, Ella listened to her surroundings. It was dead quiet. She eventually worked up the courage to open her eyes in tiny slits to glance at the room around her. At least it was a room, even if it wasn't the right one. Sensing no danger, Ella opened her eyes fully and was hit with a wave of something akin to joy and grief all muddled in to one. She had definitely found Sirius' flat. Ever the patriot, Sirius had incorporated red and gold throughout the room while a selection of posters littered the walls – not of bikini models as in his bedroom at Grimmauld Place, but of rock stars, with David Bowie taking poll position. Sirius had made quite the bachelor pad for himself. Or at least that is what Ella hoped, because if he had brought any girls back here she was sure they would surely be scared off. Ella was almost amused at discovering how Sirius had lived, until she saw the photo of four familiar boys which lay smashed on the floor with an even more familiar knife sticking through one of the faces. Ella looked up to the kitchen bench and saw two empty alcohol bottles and then to the table by the door which had turned over, as if someone had left in a hurry. Ella realised she was witnessing the aftermath of Sirius coping with his friend's deaths. It was very likely that the overturned table was from the man running out the door to seek vengeance and find Peter Pettigrew, only to find himself locked up in Azkaban. Feeling too depressed by the sight of this room, Ella went to search other rooms of the flat.

Ella opened the first door and found the bathroom. She couldn't help but notice that Sirius must have still used the same soap or shampoo because the bathroom held his scent. An array of products lined the bench and Sirius' watch lay discarded next to the sink. Ella picked it up and held it to her ear. The light ticking she heard told her it still worked. She paused slightly before pocketing the watch. She figured it wouldn't be stealing if Sirius wasn't going to have a use for it in Azkaban. Leaving Sirius' torturing scent behind, Ella found her way to the bedroom. In true Sirius style, clothes lay about the floor even though there was a perfectly good wardrobe in the room, the bed remained unmade and a few books lay here and there. Ella had the urge to walk straight out of the room again. That was until she saw a pair of flannelette pyjama pants lying on the end of the bed. Ella closed her eyes and remembered back to Grimmauld Place when Sirius would constantly be moping around in these very same pants, because, as she found out later, they were his favourites. Instead of the smile she had intended to grace her face, Ella now wore a confused frown. If Sirius had spent 12 years in Azkaban, escaped and lived abroad for a bit, then why would his favourite pyjama pants be waiting for him at Grimmauld Place if they lay here, in his flat? Ella looked toward the books that were strewn across the floor and recognised one of them as the photo album they had been looking through – at Grimmauld Place. Ella thought that Remus may have come to pick up some of Sirius' things once hearing he had been taken into custody, but then how would he have known to leave them at Sirius' parent's place when that was the last place he would be likely to go after being in prison? Then Ella remembered that Remus had thought Sirius to be guilty. This meant that he would hardly come to collect Sirius' things and believe that he would escape Azkaban and eventually reside again at Grimmauld Place. Ella then realised that no one had ever escaped Azkaban before, so no one could possibly know Sirius would escape and live in his parent's house. _Except for me._

Ella looked at the pants again, and then the photo album. Didn't Sirius also have a closet full of clothes waiting for him in his room, even though he left home when he was 16? Ella quickly rushed over to Sirius' closet at the end of the room and threw open the doors. Every outfit she had seen Sirius wear in their time in the future, she saw hung up before her. It was Ella. Ella was the one who left everything at Grimmauld Place. Not thinking about it any more, Ella set to work and conjured a large suitcase. She didn't realise the smile on her face while she packed the clothes into the suitcase, nor the grin she bore when she folded the pyjama pants neatly and added them to the contents of the case along with the photo album. On her way out to the living room, Ella noticed a long coat hanging on the back of the bedroom door. Ella reached for it but then changed her mind. She thought back to the day she and Sirius had spent in London; how he had forgotten his coat because it wouldn't go with his outfit; how he had been freezing and snuggled close to Ella under her own coat; how her heart raced as his lips grazed her neck. This time she realised she was smiling as she left the coat hanging on the hook.

Ella rifled through the contents of the bathroom once more. She didn't take long to decide what she wanted to take, as she used her arm to scoop everything from the bathroom bench into the case. All that was left was the kitchen and living room. As Ella looked around both rooms, she didn't see anything that jumped out at her like in the other rooms – so she rifled through the cupboards and voila – she found something else that may be helpful. Underneath the sink was a whole case of mulled mead and firewhiskey. Well, almost a whole case. After adding the alcohol to the suitcase, Ella figured she now had everything. She took one last look throughout the flat to make sure she hadn't missed anything. Once she was satisfied, she closed the suitcase and prepared to disapparate. However, as she turned around she tripped over something. The knife. Ella hadn't bothered with the knife as she knew Sirius had brought it with him to the future. The reason it existed when they travelled was because Sirius had given the knife to Harry, who reported that the knife had been destroyed. But how did Sirius get the knife back in his possession to give to Harry? Ella, already knowing the answer, dislodged the knife from the floor and put it in her pocket. With the final addition, Ella grabbed the suitcase and disapparated.

Ella arrived promptly in her own living room, grabbed the pile of newspapers in the corner and disappeared once again.

This time, Ella appeared in the back yard of Grimmauld Place. She suddenly had a horrible thought: what if Sirius' parents were still alive? She never did find out when they had died. Figuring that she had to do this now or never, Ella approached the house and pointed her wand at the door. It opened. Not wanting to know if the house was occupied by people other than Kreacher, Ella rushed up the stairs, past the portrait who didn't have time to scream, and strait into Sirius' bedroom. She pointed her wand at the suitcase and the contents unpacked themselves into the wardrobe. Wasting no time, Ella rushed out of that room and up the stairs again to the master bedroom. Quickly finding the loose window sill, Ella opened it up and stored the alcohol in there while leaving the newspapers in a pile at the bottom of the wardrobe. Ella rushed downstairs once again and wedged Sirius' knife into the table, and with that final action, ran out into the back yard and disapparated again.

If Ella had taken her time, she would have realised that the house was indeed empty, and that there would be no way for her to have gotten in had the house not belonged to Sirius already.

* * *

Ella's heart was racing when she returned to her own flat and she found it difficult to do what she now knew she had to. Fighting back tears as the events of the day caught up with her, Ella held her wand in both hands and managed to bring it down forcefully against her knee. Ella let the wand fall to the floor. She couldn't even look at it.

Ella spent the next two days in bed.

* * *

Ella felt she had done all she could. She couldn't spend the rest of her life in a rut because of what she had been through. She gave herself a month to deliberate over what had happened, and then she made sure to move on with her life. This wasn't as hard as she thought as she didn't have her wand to tempt her to perform magic any more – although she was always going to be a magical being, so she could not stop the bouts of random magic which seemed to occur around her every now and then.

* * *

Ella followed Harry's story throughout his life by reading the Daily Prophet. Ella wasn't stupid; she knew not to believe everything she read. Ella waited near Platform 9 at Kings Cross station on Harry's first day of school and saw as he met Ron and the rest of the Weasleys. Ella never dared venture onto Platform 9 ¾. Each year she would watch as Harry, Ron and Hermione would make their way onto the platform, and continue reading about their escapades in the Daily Prophet, but never understanding the full story due to the bias of the paper.

Ella would also make sure she went to the dentist regularly.

* * *

Nineteen years after leaving the wizarding world, Ella considered herself happy. All she ever needed was time, and time had given back to her. She knew she would always have a love for magic, but she had accustomed herself to her new life and was now enjoying it. She now lived in Epping with her partner of 10 years. On Ella's request, they had never married nor had children; she was still plagued with the knowledge that she would die young. How young, she didn't know, so she didn't want to leave behind a husband and children to live without her.

As for Sirius, Ella would always love him. He was a great friend and the first person she would ever be in love with. But after years of no contact with him, things had changed. Ella had been in love with Sirius Black, then after years of no contact, that love waned. Try as one might, it is impossible to love a ghost.

Ella stopped wearing the ring after reading of Sirius' escape, and shortly after, stopped her subscription to the Daily Prophet.

* * *

Ella had decided to go shopping one weekend and had the urge to look through her jewellery box. As she rifled through the contents, she noticed the ring Sirius had given her all those years ago and a smile came to her face. She turned to see Paul still lying in bed with his mouth slightly open and an even bigger smile came to her face. She suddenly found herself thinking that she was extraordinarily lucky to have loved two great people in her life. Although Ella didn't put the ring on, she pocketed it. She kissed Paul lightly on the forehead and he snorted. Ella giggled and left him to continue sleeping.

After shopping in the West End for a couple of hours, Ella came to her favourite bookshop in the city. She was looking through the shelves and caught a glimpse out of the window. She saw a pawn shop she had never noticed before.

"_Sirius, when did you- you shouldn't have, I bet it was far too expensive!"_

"_Not really, don't worry about it. I got it in a pawn shop while you were looking in that bookshop. Besides, I think my fake fiancé deserves a pretty ring, don't you?"_

Ella put down the number of bags she held in her hand and took out the ring which was in her pocket. The metal had lost its luster but the stone was as beautiful as ever. For the first time in many years, Ella instinctively knew what she needed to do. She picked up her bags and left the bookstore without buying anything. The bell above the door rang as Ella opened the door to the pawn shop.

"_What's so funny?"_

"_Oh nothing __Esmeralda, __its just that every time I look at you all I'll be thinking now is 'THE BELLS! THE BELLS!'"_

Ella smiled yet again when she handed the ring over the counter. The man running the store was rather peculiar. He had a very unique old fashioned style with a monocle over one eye and he surveyed the ring with interest.

"How much were you wanting for it?" he asked. Ella furrowed her brow.

"Oh, I didn't think of that. Could you just take it? It's more of a sentimental piece if anything, I don't think I could put a price on it."

The store man now surveyed her.

"You sure about that?"

Ella smiled, "Yes. Thank you."

* * *

Ella opened the boot of her car and lined up all of her shopping bags from her day's efforts. She closed the boot and went around the side of the car to get into the driver's seat.

Ella was driving down the motorway on her way home when she looked in the mirror before changing lanes. However, the mirror was slightly askew, and instead of seeing any cars behind her, she saw her reflection. At 36, Ella's hair was now shorter and lighter, due to the current fashion and casual appointments at the hairdressers. As Ella had been working a lot with computers for her job at the bank, she had been wearing glasses for the past three years. As Ella glanced at her reflection, she started to feel dizzy. She couldn't see the road anymore. Ella thought of the list she had been adding to over the years, and realised there was always one crucial piece of the puzzle missing. She never remembered how she died. Until now. The mirror. A face. Her face.

"_You'll be driving down the motorway, you'll black out even though you haven't done so for years, and you will end up here. There will be no pain, no one else will be hurt, you will just simply…no longer be."_

And with that, Esmeralda Powell, witch and muggle, were no longer.

* * *

Sitting at home, frustrated by not being able to help fight against the Dark Lord with the rest of the Order of the Phoenix, Sirius Black was pacing about the house in a silent rage. Since he had re-entered his parent's house, he hadn't stepped foot in his old room. He had never grown up and yet he had changed so much. He stood outside his bedroom door and he suddenly thought about someone he had not thought about since the birth of his godson; Esmeralda Powell. It was as if she was the key for him to open the door, as the doorknob turned and he entered his room. It was exactly as he remembered it. He was drawn to the closet for some reason, but on his way he accidentally kicked something under the bed. He realised it was his old photo album. He didn't even think of why it was there. As he picked the album up, a photo fell out from the back. It was the photo of him and Ella on the last day of school. As he watched the photo Sirius whisper in Ella's ear, he saw for the first time, the look on Ella's face. He should have known back then, on that day. But even looking at her expression in the photo, Sirius believed she loved him. In some part of his mind, he had always thought she would wait for him.

And in another world, she did.

**

* * *

****A/N: **THAT WAS IT FOLKS!! Yes i apologise profusely for not having this up sooner, but i got extraordinarily busy, had no internet and only got back home a couple of weeks ago!!

I really hope this chapter doesn't disappoint, it was actually really hard to write so i hope i did an alright job. I hope it leaves you with a little hope too...i like to leave the end open for interpretation so please send me your theories on what you think happened after that...or what happened beyond etc!!

THANK YOU SO SO SO much for your reviews and for sticking with my story...especially over the last couple of months with no posts to speak of! You guys really boosted my ego and made reading letters in my inbox a joy!! I loved hearing your theories on everything so i hope all your questions have been answered. If you have any more questions i would love to hear them and i will answer them...if i know the answer lol.

Please review, i would love to know what you think of the ending and if you have any questions!! CHEERS FOLKS!!

meanderingbluebottle xxoo

THANK YOU AGAIN!!


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